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Historic Sites Commemorate 140th Anniversary of
Bentonville and Other Sites Commemorate 145th Anniversaries
Over the weekend of March 20-21, exactly 145 years after the battle, more than fifty
thousand spectators and participants descended on Bentonville Battlefield State Historic
Site for the engagement’s reenactment, which is held every five years. Bentonville is the
largest Civil War battlefield in the state and the site of the only full-scale Confederate
offensive effort to stop the march of Gen. William T. Sherman’s army northward from
Savannah, Georgia. It was one of the last major battles of the war, with more than eighty
Carolina
Comments
Published Quarterly by the North Carolina Office of Archives and History
Thousands of spectators viewed the reenactment of the “Fight for Morris Farm” at Bentonville
Battlefield State Historic Site. All images courtesy of the Office of Archives and History unless
otherwise indicated.
thousand troops engaged over six thousand acres of farmland. Saturday’s weather, sunny
and in the seventies, contributed to the record crowds drawn by the opportunity to see
more than 3,500 reenactors in period clothing and settings depicting Union and Confed-erate
soldiers, civilian sutlers, and camp followers.
The event kicked off on Thursday, March 17, with a School Day program for three
hundred students from Four Oaks and Meadow elementary schools. The program featured
tours of the Harper House, discussions of slavery in the state, and demonstrations of infan-try,
artillery, blacksmithing, period medical practices, and cooking and other domestic
activities. Reenactors also began arriving that day. By the time the reenactment kicked off
on Saturday morning, the property surrounding the visitor center was filled with the
sights, sounds, and smells of reenactors beginning their busy day: cooking breakfast over
open fires; mustering in the nearby open field; and preparing for the climactic battle to be
held that afternoon.
Saturday’s reenactment depicted the “Fight for Morris Farm,” and Sunday’s scenario
included the “Last Grand Charge of the Army of Tennessee and Morgan’s Stand.” All of
these engagements occurred on March 19, 1865. A Confederate courier on the staff of
Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee described the last charge as “the most terrible battle I ever
imagined” and “the most fearful scene I have ever witnessed.”
Historian Mark Bradley explained each of the reenactments for the thousands of
spectators. Other lecturers discussed a variety of relevant topics. Curator Earl Ijames of the
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For the Record
Once again North Carolina’s Department of Public
Instruction (DPI) has decided to overhaul the curricu-lum
standards for social studies in grades K–12. Both
U.S. history and North Carolina history could be
threatened. While neither subject would be eliminated
entirely, the newly proposed standards would suffuse
both subjects with “global studies” to make the courses
more “relevant” to today’s students. In 2001 DPI
attempted to eliminate North Carolina history from the
eighth-grade curriculum. That effort failed when, by a vote
of 115 to 0, the North Carolina House of Representatives
passed a bill to preserve the state’s history in the curriculum.
After hearing from more than seven
thousand people in January and February 2010, DPI scrapped its original plans to
rewrite the eleventh-grade curriculum in U.S. history. The most controversial part of
the new standards would have begun the course in 1877. The colonial era, American
Revolution, the Constitution, sectional conflict, slavery, westward expansion, Indian
removal, the Civil War, and Reconstruction, to name a few topics, would have been
ignored. For example,
the civil rights movement would have been taught without reference to slavery. The
Jim Crow era that engendered the fight for social justice and equal rights presumably
would have been taught. Segregation, however, was not mentioned in the proposed
standards. DPI explained that subjects that appeared to be omitted would be covered
in earlier grades, especially the seventh, when North Carolina history
and U.S. history are conjoined, and the tenth, when students study the Constitution.
A look at the curriculum standards for the seventh grade, however, reveals just as
many gaps. The standards appear to be topical with little or no reference to chronol-ogy.
Many teachers might prefer a topical approach, but without mileposts along the
way, students will have difficulty separating the constitutional debates of the 1780s
North Carolina Museum of History explored the African American experience in North
Carolina during the Civil War. Chris E. Fonvielle of the University of North Carolina
Wilmington examined the war in North Carolina prior to Bentonville. Suzy Barile of
Wake Technical Community College gave a lecture titled, “Undaunted Heart: The True
Story of a Southern Belle and a Yankee General.” Bentonville volunteers Linda
Humphries and Brenda McKean spoke on period mourning practices and Confederate
substitutes, respectively.
Including the staff at Bentonville, approximately seventy Department of Cultural
Resources employees from historic sites, museums, and administrative positions assisted
with the event. More than one hundred volunteers from the local community also partici-pated.
Nearly sixty volunteers worked the concession stands, which were provided by the
Bentonville Volunteer Fire Department; all proceeds from food sales will go toward
purchasing much-needed equipment and supplies. A team of about fifty volunteers from
Cornerstone Church in Four Oaks assisted with parking.
“All in all, it was a great weekend,” said Donny Taylor, site manager of Bentonville
Battlefield. “We consider it a huge success for the entire community.” The event was
sponsored by the Bentonville Battlefield Historical Association, the Johnston County
Visitors Bureau, the Civil War Preservation Trust, and the Division of State Historic Sites
and Properties. All proceeds from ticket sales will be used for battlefield interpretation and
preservation.
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For the Record (continued)
from the sectional debates of the 1850s. Already more than half of the seniors at the
nation’s fifty-five top colleges do not know that Abraham Lincoln was president
during the Civil War. Another 40 percent cannot place the Civil War in the correct
half century. North Carolina’s proposed standards are not likely to improve such
alarming examples of historical amnesia.
One wonders what textbooks teachers will use in the seventh grade. Current
textbooks are written for the eighth grade. Many teachers have spent years, even
decades, mastering North Carolina history for the eighth grade. What happens when
a different corps of seventh-grade teachers is assigned North Carolina history?
For more than a century, the Office of Archives and History has promoted the
study of the state’s history through publications, museums, historic sites, and other
materials aimed at the eighth grade. The Tar Heel Junior Historian Association, with
more than five thousand mostly eighth-grade students, has thrived since 1953. Will
those programs receive as much attention and support in the seventh grade?
Fortunately, the Office of Archives and History has not had to lead the defense
of history as it did in 2001. Many citizens, teachers, and academics stated their
thoroughgoing opposition to the new standards being proposed. In particular, Holly
Brewer at North Carolina State University and Larry Tise at East Carolina University
rallied historians across the state. DPI insists that the new standards are only a draft
and that it will take a year or more to refine them. DPI is scheduled to release a
revised curriculum for U.S. history in April 2010. DPI can be certain that historians
will be watching.
James Madison once said: “A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a
free people.” History education gives citizens the context and background for under-standing
current conflicts and challenges. Without proper instruction in history,
citizen involvement and the protection of democratic rights remain at risk.
Jeffrey J. Crow
Several other state historic sites also commemorated the 145th anniversary of the end
of the Civil War with special programming. In fact, the progress of Federal forces across
eastern North Carolina in 1865 can be traced by the sequence of commemorative events
in 2010. The remembrance of the Second Battle for Fort Fisher began on the evening of
January 15, when Fort Fisher State Historic Site hosted a panel discussion titled, “Black
Men Bearing Freedom: U.S. Colored Troops and Their Impact on North Carolina.” In
January 1865 more than three thousand United States Colored Troops (USCT) landed at
Fort Fisher and subsequently participated in the campaign to capture Wilmington. Pre-sented
at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) and co-hosted by the
Upperman African American Cultural Center, the program explored the Civil War expe-riences
of African Americans in coastal North Carolina, both on the home front and on
the battlefield. The panelists examined a number of diverse topics, from the recruitment of
African Americans in eastern North Carolina into the Union army to the role that African
American military service played in postwar arguments for black citizenship. Participants
on the panel included Chris E. Fonvielle and John Haley of UNCW, Mark Elliot of the
University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Richard Reid of the University of
Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Heather Williams of the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill moderated the discussion. The program was funded in part by a grant from
the North Carolina Humanities Council, a nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment
for the Humanities.
On Saturday, January 16, Fort Fisher continued the commemorative programming
with its annual reenactment event. More than seven thousand visitors enjoyed infantry and
artillery demonstrations, period music, and Confederate and Union encampments on the
grounds. A re-creation of the attack on Shepherd’s Battery highlighted the program with
the participation of approximately 350 reenactors, including several USCT interpreters
from as far away as Ohio. The focus on the USCT continued with a presentation by
Richard Reid, author of Freedom for Themselves: North Carolina’s Black Soldiers in the Civil
War Era. Concluding Saturday’s festivities were lantern tours and a night firing of the
thirty-two-pound rifled and banded cannon at Shepherd’s Battery. Nearly forty volunteers
and staff members from the Department of Cultural Resources assisted with the event.
The commemoration of the 145th anniversary of the 1865 attack on Fort Anderson
opened with a program at the Southport Community Building in Southport on
February 16 that included presentations and a panel discussion that focused on archaeolog-ical
investigations at the site of the fort in 2009. The panelists were historian Chris E.
Fonvielle of UNCW, archaeologist Thomas Beaman of Wake Technical Community
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Reenactors depict Confederate cavalrymen in the “Last Grand Charge of the Army of Tennessee” at
Bentonville Battlefield on March 21.
College, and assistant state archaeologist John Mintz of the Office of State Archaeology.
Fonvielle presented an account of the development of the fort and its place in the overall
scheme of the Cape Fear River defenses. Mintz described the archaeological investigations
involving the ADA-compliant walkway and gun emplacement #3 on Battery B at
Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site. Beaman discussed the excavation of
the barracks behind Battery A during the Peace College Field School last summer. The
program was attended by ninety-six people. The event was a cooperative effort between
the Friends of Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson, the North Carolina Maritime Museum at
Southport, the Friends of North Carolina Maritime Museum at Southport, and the
Southport Department of Tourism.
The anniversary of the fall of Fort Anderson
was commemorated at the historic site on Febru-ary
19–21. The program on Saturday focused on
the fight for Fort Anderson and on Sunday the
Battle of Town Creek, the last two Confederate
stands on the west bank of the Cape Fear River in
February 1865, prior to the fall of Wilmington.
More than 250 reenactors, sutlers, and civilians
participated in the event, which was viewed by
nearly three thousand spectators. Chris E.
Fonvielle, the guest speaker on Sunday, discussed
the two battles, and Mike Kochan, an authority
on Civil War-era torpedoes and co-author of
Torpedoes: Another Look at the Infernal Machines of
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Historic interpreters portraying United States Colored Troops welcome a visitor to the
commemoration of the 145th anniversary of the Second Battle for Fort Fisher.
Ann Ortiz (left) and Marsha Harris (right) of the
Huckleberry Brothers band entertain guests with
period music at Fort Anderson on February 20.
the Civil War, made two presentations on Saturday. The Cape Fear Chapter #3 of the
United Daughters of the Confederacy hosted a mid-nineteenth-century fashion show.
Vignettes in guided lantern tours of the interior of Fort Anderson focused on the Confed-erate
evacuation and Federal occupation of the fort. There were medical demonstrations
on both days of the event, and the tour finale featured a graphic interpretation of military
surgeons at work. “Sutler Row” was inhabited by a number of general goods merchants, a
maker of ironclad models, two blacksmiths, a period photographer, and a chaplain.
Historical Commission Seeks to Diversify Capitol Memorials
At its meeting on August 27, 2009, the North Carolina Historical Commission
appointed a committee to examine alternatives for diversifying memorials in the State
Capitol and upon the grounds of Union Square, with the objective of commemorating
the contributions of Native Americans, African Americans, and women to North Carolina
history. The action came after the commission heard an appeal from retired Durham
educator Eddie Davis for the establishment of a “Hall of Inclusion” in the rotunda area on
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Make Room for Historic Reenactors
Douglas A. Johnston
EDITOR’S NOTE: Douglas A. Johnston is a graduate of the University of North Carolina
(UNC) at Chapel Hill and its School of Law, a retired U.S. Navy commander, a Raleigh
attorney who teaches in the UNC School of Public Health, and a supporter of every effort
to preserve and present the state’s history.
Historic reenactors do not get the attention they deserve. Ironically, while
earning the highest praise from their audiences, they are too often taken lightly, or
worse, belittled and ignored. Some uninformed critics scorn reenactors as amateurs
and as grown-ups playing at war.
Yet for ages the paramount method of presenting history to the average audi-ence,
referred to then as the “common people,” was through drama. Of Shake-speare’s
plays, at least ten are histories, and others involve historical persons. As
time passed, museums became the preferred forum for presenting history, later
augmented by historic sites and parks. Today history is delivered through publica-tions,
classes, documentary films, exhibitions, preservation, and public history. It
is time now to fully and fairly recognize reenactors’ place in presenting history.
Underlying the criticism of reenactments is their characterization as a harmless
amusement. The charge that reenactments are for the entertainment of the
reenactors themselves is unfair. It is contradicted by the single, overriding reason
for their efforts—to bring alive the people and events of the period they represent.
With this focus, reenactors reach out beyond battlefields and veterans’ groups to a
range of community organizations from the PTA to the chamber of commerce.
Further, it is charged that reenactors present a narrow view of history—too
romanticized, too sentimentalized. Reenactors refute this charge, too, with their
broad commitment to education. Reenactors compare life in earlier societies with
that in later ones (seventeenth-century warfare with that of subsequent centuries),
cultural groups in different areas with one another (Confederate and Union sol-diers),
and the various coexisting segments within a community (planter gentility,
yeoman farmers, free blacks, and slaves). Like historical interpreters at historic sites,
reenactors depict domestic, business, and political life and attitudes, as well as illu-minate
different regional and racial perspectives. Like the best current research,
they discredit myths and dismantle stereotypes. (continued)
the second floor of the Capitol, and a response from John Sanders, formerly of the Insti-tute
of Government in Chapel Hill, arguing that the architectural integrity of the Capitol
would be compromised by such an intrusion. The commission has responsibility for his-toric
sites across the state and the review of all monuments on state property.
William S. Price Jr., former director of the Division of Archives and History, was
appointed to chair the Capitol Memorial Study Committee. Keith Hardison, Deanna
Mitchell, and Michelle Lanier, all of the Division of State Historic Sites and Properties,
and Michael Hill of the Research Branch, were assigned to the committee. Commission
members Freddie Parker and Harry Watson completed the group.
The committee’s charge is 1) to assay the present assemblage of plaques, memorials,
and statues in the Capitol and upon its grounds; 2) to evaluate the merits or advisability of
additional plaques, memorials, or statues dedicated specifically to addressing a perceived
underrepresentation of women and racial and ethnic minorities, including but not limited
to African Americans and American Indians; 3) to seek public comment in their delibera-tions;
and 4) to present the commission with alternatives to new memorials at the Capitol
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Answering their critics, reenactors justify a legitimate claim for recognition and
for greater public support. Why should every community support reenactors?
Every reenactor group produces two important returns, derived from their roles as
gateway and rallying point.
Reenactors provide gateways to history: Reenactors present many people their
most powerful personal experience with history. Say what you will about best-selling
biographies and six-part documentaries, neither has quite the ability to
engage an individual as an encounter with flesh-and-blood reenactors. In a
reenactment, the remote picture in a history book becomes three-dimensional and
personal. People may discover a personal feeling for their genealogical chart when
they meet a reenactor who, much like their own great-great-grandfather, has an
attitude, a bold sense of humor, and a serious concern for family, faith, and
neighbors.
Reenactors do not merely create an appreciation for history; they also deepen
it. They address historic preservation issues and the search for solutions through
engineering, arts, collecting, restoration, woodworking, and other crafts. They help
history readers become history experts. Anyone who cares enough can be an
expert—no anointment is required. One who cares deeply about something, be it
snuffboxes or weaponry, soon distinguishes the real from the fake and the superior
from the ordinary, while appreciating the importance of the ordinary as well.
Expertise comes from care and work. The devil may be in the details, but there is
excitement there, too.
Reenactments are rallying points: A rallying point must be highly visible. Need
I say more? Reenactments are definitely visible! No other group is more centrally
placed, both physically and emotionally, to bring together those who share a con-cern
for history and for its tangible manifestations in museums, historic sites, and
historic districts. Reenactors are rallying points against threats to limited and valu-able
historic resources from the depredations of progress and the blight of insuffi-cient
funding. Reenactors influence attitudes toward history generally and toward
the creation of the kind of place a community wants to be.
For reenactors, being called “things of the past” and “relics” is high praise—
titles they assume with pride. Reenactors unite drama with the same attention to
detail and accuracy of the best museums and restorations. This combination,
unique to reenactors, awakens our excitement for history and keeps us coming
back for more!
or elsewhere in the state government complex, with these recommendations to address
location, subject matter, likenesses, and funding sources.
In pursuance of public input, the committee held three hearings: at the Young Men’s
Institute Cultural Center in Asheville on February 15; in the House chamber of the State
Capitol in Raleigh on February 18; and at East Carolina University in Greenville on
February 22. The group also invites comments on a blog attached to the State Capitol’s
Web site, www.nchistoricsites.org/capitol.
Early in their deliberations, committee members determined that they will not recom-mend
the removal of any existing monuments or memorials. Further, they commend the
work of the Freedom Monument Project and seek to complement, not supplant, the plan
for a public art project at the junction of Wilmington and Lane streets in downtown
Raleigh. In the initial meetings, the group found that North Carolina lags behind neigh-boring
states in diversifying memorials. Virginia has a new monument on its Capitol
Square depicting civil rights activists, Tennessee commemorates the Fourteenth and
Nineteenth amendments with interior bas relief depictions, and South Carolina in 2001
dedicated a large, multipanel African American monument on its Capitol grounds. The
committee plans to complete its study this spring, and the Historical Commission will
take up the matter again at its May meeting.
Division of Historical Resources Honors Service of Employees
On February 22, Department of Cultural Resources (DCR) secretary Linda Carlisle
presented service award certificates to twenty Raleigh-based employees of the Division of
Historical Resources. Secretary Carlisle was assisted by chief deputy secretary Debra Derr;
Jeffrey Crow, deputy secretary of the Office of Archives and History; and David Brook,
director of the Division of Historical Resources. The service of six other employees who
are either in regional offices or were on leave was acknowledged in absentia. During the
ceremony, Brook noted the 107-year-old tradition of service of the Office of Archives and
History. Secretary Carlisle and Deputy Secretary Crow delivered remarks honoring the
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Division of Historical Resources award recipients with twenty-five, thirty, or thirty-five years of
service pose with Department of Cultural Resources administrators (left to right): Fofy Rocha, Vivian
McDuffie, Donna Kelly, Jeffrey Crow, Secretary Linda Carlisle, David Brook, and Deputy Secretary
Debra Derr.
recipients, and Deputy Secretary Derr presented tokens of appreciation on behalf of the
State. The DCR Equal Opportunity Diversity Choir, directed by Lorice Hyman, per-formed
the state song, “The Old North State.” A reception sponsored by the North
Carolina Literary and Historical Association followed the ceremony. Karen Pochala-Peck
chaired the arrangements committee.
The honorees were:
Five years: Douglas Brown, Archives and Records; Michael Coffey, Historical Publica-tions;
Jessica Dockery, Historic Preservation; Rebecca Johnson, Historic Preservation; and
Madeline Spencer, Archaeology.
Ten years: Laura Ketcham, Education Office; Karen Lisbeth Spiers, Archives and
Records; and Alison Thurman, Archives and Records.
Fifteen years: Richard Blanks, Archives and Records; Gail Elliott, Historical Publica-tions;
and Sarah Koonts, Archives and Records.
Twenty years: Claudia Brown, Historic Preservation; Chandrea Burch, Archives and
Records; Kimberly Cumber, Archives and Records; Alex (Chris) Meekins, Archives and
Records; William Garrett, Archives and Records; and Peter Sandbeck, Historic
Preservation.
Twenty-five years: David Brook, Division of Historical Resources; Donna Kelly,
Historical Publications; Vivian McDuffie, Research Branch; Fofy Rocha, Archives and
Records; and Frank (Mitch) Wilds, Historic Preservation.
Thirty years: Nick Lanier, Western Office; Mark Wilde-Ramsing, Archaeology; and
James Sorrell, Archives and Records.
Thirty-five years: Jeffrey Crow, Office of Archives and History.
David Brook Speaks at “Best of Our State” Event
On Saturday, January 9, 2010, at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, David Brook,
director of the Division of Historical Resources, presented a PowerPoint lecture titled,
“ ‘A Most Magnificent Spectacle’—Minnette Chapman Duffy and the New Bern Histori-cal
Celebration of 1929.” The presentation, before a crowd of approximately eight hun-dred
people, was part of Our State magazine’s twelfth annual “Best of Our State Weekend
Celebration” that highlighted North Carolina music, history, humor, literature, art, and
food. In his remarks, Brook underscored the Department of Cultural Resources’ commit-ment
to education and the creative economy.
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“Best of Our State” speakers
at a reception at the Grove
Park Inn in Asheville (left to
right): David Brook; story-teller
Connie Regan-Blake;
wildlife expert Carol Buie-
Jackson; Cecilia Budd
Grimes, author of What it
Means to be Southern; John
Hart, author of The Last
Child; and Bernard Mann,
publisher of Our State
magazine. Image by Beth
Wyckoff, courtesy of Our
State magazine.
Roanoke Island Festival Park
Visitors to Roanoke Island Festival Park this spring can explore coastal Algonquian
culture and history in a new exhibit, American Indian Town. The town represents an Amer-ican
Indian community similar to those English explorers investigated during their voyages
to Roanoke Island and the surrounding area in the late sixteenth century. Homes, agricul-tural
areas, and work shelters line paths that wind through the park. Two longhouses rep-resent
the historical homes of American Indians from the region. One of the longhouses,
which stretches more than thirty feet, interprets the home of a leader of the community. A
smaller and partially built longhouse includes an interactive component that invites visitors
to help complete the structure. Both houses contain interactive exhibits that focus on the
developing relationship between the American Indian and English peoples during the late
sixteenth century. The exhibit includes a planting and harvesting area, where visitors can
learn the advanced nuances of American Indian farming techniques, and a ceremonial
dance circle. Three work shelters feature such activities as cordage (rope) making, mat and
basket weaving, net mending, food preparation, hide tanning, fishing, boatbuilding, and
gathering.
Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens
In December 2009, the Tryon Palace Council of Friends sponsored a delegation of
thirty-four members to Bern, Switzerland, for the opening of a special exhibition at the
Historischen Museum. BernNewBern: New Bern, North Carolina—300 Years Daughter City
in America illustrates the history of the Bernese emigration in the early eighteenth century.
The exhibit’s recurrent theme focuses on the development of New Bern, named after the
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The unfinished longhouse in the American Indian Town exhibit at Roanoke Island Festival Park
encourages visitors to help complete the structure.
News from Office of Archives and History Administration
mother city of Bern, and the strong ties between
the two cities. Founded in 1191, Bern was
already more than five hundred years old when
Baron Christopher de Graffenried left the Swiss
capital to establish New Bern as a colonial out-post
in Carolina. The BernNewBern exhibit will
travel to Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens
in September, where it will be installed for New
Bern’s three-hundredth jubilee celebration. A
large contingent of visitors from Bern is expected
to attend the exhibit opening and participate in
New Bern’s tercentenary commemoration.
“The Palace, by George!” was the theme of a series of special programs that focused on
George Washington and early statehood. On February 20–21, in honor of the birthday of
the first president, tours of Tryon Palace discussed Washington’s 1791 visit to New Bern
and the festivities held in his honor. Visitors learned that the palace operated as the first
state capitol, and that George Washington stayed at the John Wright Stanly House during
his time in New Bern. On Saturday, the Tryon Palace Fife and Drum Corps performed
two concerts. As a special promotion for the weekend, all visitors named George or some
variation thereof were given a discount off the all-inclusive Governor’s Pass.
In remembrance of the 1862 Battle of New Bern and the ensuing occupation of the
city, Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens offered commemorative programming on
March 13–15, titled “New Bern Occupied: A Union City in the Midst of the Confeder-acy.”
Tours of the George Dixon House and the John Wright Stanly House concentrated
on the contemporary history of each building: a hospital for a Vermont regiment in the
midst of a yellow fever epidemic and the headquarters of Gen. Ambrose Burnside, respec-tively.
Costumed interpreters and period photographs added to the historical flavor of the
tours. Special activities for children included crafting patriotic cockades, rolling cartridges,
and military drills. Nineteenth-century games offered a diversion for those not militarily
inclined. On Sunday, guests were treated to the Civil War-era selections of local musician
Simon Spalding.
Archives and Records Section
In February the Special Collections Branch added the records of the American Lung
Association to the collection of organizational records at the North Carolina State
Archives. The American Lung Association, formed in 1904, is the nation’s oldest volun-tary
health organization. In 1906, North Carolina organized the first state-level chapter.
The collection includes the minutes of the Tuberculosis Association, which was the focus
of the organization in the beginning, as well as a complete set of Christmas Seals, the
major means of fund-raising for the association. The records of the American Lung
Association are a valuable addition to the organizational records at the State Archives
related to health and medical fields, which include the papers of the North Carolina
Nurses Association and the North Carolina Medical Society Alliance.
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News from Historical Resources
A poster for the BernNewBern: New Bern, North
Carolina—300 Years Daughter City in America exhibit
currently on display at the Historischen Museum in
Bern, Switzerland, and coming to Tryon Palace in
September.
A 1960 sit-in at the F. W. Woolworth lunch counter in Charlotte; Richard Petty and
Miss Winston celebrating a mid-1970s victory at North Wilkesboro Speedway; and devas-tation
at Kitty Hawk by the March 1962 Ash Wednesday storm—these are but a few of
the myriad subjects featured in a new exhibit of photographs at the Outer Banks History
Center (OBHC) in Manteo. Bruce Roberts Photojournalist: Fifty Years of Capturing Change
opened on March 5 in the History Center Gallery and will run through the end of the
year. The exhibit is made possible by the generous support of the Frank Stick Memorial
Fund of the Outer Banks Community Foundation and Our State magazine.
After graduating from New York University and serving two years in the U.S. Air
Force, Bruce Roberts came to North Carolina to take photographs for the Hamlet News-
Messenger. In 1958, venerable editor Pete McKnight hired Roberts at the Charlotte
Observer, where he became part of a legendary team of young and talented photojournalists
who pioneered the use of thirty-five-millimeter cameras. Roberts’s photographs have been
published in national publications such as Life, Look, Time, and the Saturday Evening Post.
He also contributed cover photographs to The State magazine, now known as Our State.
Roberts has had his pictures and writings published in more than fifty books, most
recently Just Yesterday: North Carolina People and Places, published by the Historical
Publications Section in 2008.
The Outer Banks History Center Associates, the nonprofit support group of the
OBHC, hosted the premier of Rescue Men: The Story of the Pea Island Life Savers in the
Indoor Theater at Roanoke Island Festival Park on February 27. This documentary film
relates the story of an all-black lifesaving crew and its commanding officer, Richard
Etheridge. Born into slavery in 1842, Etheridge learned to read and write from the family
who owned him. He served with Union troops after the capture of Roanoke Island in
1862. He was selected as commander of the lifesaving station at Pea Island in 1880 and
served until 1900. Rescue Men chronicles the struggles of Etheridge and his men to over-come
racial hostility while striving to build the reputation of the lifesaving service along
the “Graveyard of the Atlantic.”
The film was produced by Los Angeles-based DreamQuest Productions. “We have
been working on this feature documentary film for the past year and a half,” said Allan
Smith, DreamQuest president. “It has been an incredible journey, and we feel very
fortunate to tell this remarkable story.” The producers worked closely with the
Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station Historic Site, the Outer Banks History Center, the
National Park Service Outer Banks Group, the Pea Island Lifesavers Museum in Manteo,
the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island, and the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau.
The standing-room-only audience of more than 250 people at the premier of Rescue
Men included Senator Marc Basnight of Manteo and Rear Admiral Stephen W. Rochon,
U.S. Coast Guard (Ret.). Admiral Rochon, who assisted the documentary project as a
4 4 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
KaeLi Spiers (right),
curator of the Outer
Banks History Center,
provided a personal tour
of the Manteo facility to
Rear Admiral and Mrs.
Stephen W. Rochon
before the premier of the
documentary film, Rescue
Men.
researcher and consultant, participated in a question-and-answer session at the conclusion
of the film. Since his retirement from the Coast Guard in 2007, Rochon has served as
Director of the Executive Residence and Chief Usher of the White House under Presi-dents
George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Among many other duties, he is responsible
for the care of the priceless artifacts, artwork, and original documents in the White House.
On the day of the premier of Rescue Men, he and his wife Shirley, also retired from the
Coast Guard, were given a personal tour of the OBHC stacks by curator KaeLi Spiers.
The Rochons particularly enjoyed the wreck reports and payroll records written by
Richard Etheridge, original drawings by Edwin Graves Champney and James Wells
Champney, and prints of other Civil War-era sketches from Harpers Weekly and the New
York Times in the custody of the OBHC.
Historical Publications Section
The section has published Haven on the
Hill: The History of North Carolina’s Dorothea
Dix Hospital, by Marjorie O’Rorke. The
book recounts the history of the Raleigh
hospital from the events surrounding the
1848 legislative authorization to fund and
build the state’s first mental hospital to the
ongoing debate over the property’s future
following the proposed closing of the facil-ity
in the early twenty-first century. The
narrative includes personal stories of staff
members and analysis of the trends and
developments that shaped the institution.
Of particular interest are changes in the per-ception
and treatment of the mentally ill
during Dix’s 150-year history.
Marjorie O’Rorke holds a bachelor’s
degree in history from Oberlin College and
a master’s degree in nursing from the Yale
University School of Nursing. During her
career, she has been a head nurse, instructor, and supervisor in medical/surgical nursing.
Since 1961, she has volunteered at Dorothea Dix Hospital. Documentary editor Lang
Baradell painstakingly edited, indexed, and shepherded the book through publication. On
Wednesday, March 17, more than seventy-five people gathered on the Dix campus to
hear the author discuss Haven on the Hill and sign copies of the book. During the day, 164
books were sold to current and former employees of the hospital and other interested par-ties.
It was perhaps the most successful one-day one-book event in the history of the
Historical Publications program.
Haven on the Hill (paperbound; pp. xiii, 321; illustrated; index) sells for $28.02, which
includes tax and shipping. Order from the Historical Publications Section (CC), Office of
Archives and History, 4622 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-4622. For credit
card orders, call (919) 733-7442, ext. 0, or access the section’s secure online store at
http://nc-historical-publications.stores. yahoo.net/.
Native Carolinians: The Indians of North Carolina, written by Theda Perdue and first
published in 1985, has been revised and updated by Christopher Arris Oakley. The
chapters on the Cherokees, the Lumbees, and present-day native Carolinians have been
expanded to incorporate important developments over the past quarter century. A number
of illustrations have been added, and a detailed index makes the text more accessible. The
British Museum graciously allowed the Historical Publications Section to reproduce in
color John White’s drawing, “The manner of their fishing,” on the front cover.
V O L U M E 5 8 , N U M B E R 2 , A P R I L 2 0 1 0 4 5
Marjorie O’Rorke, author of Haven on the Hill:
The History of North Carolina’s Dorothea Dix
Hospital, discussed and signed copies of her book
at the hospital on March 17.
The revised edition of Native Carolinians (paperbound; pp. xiv, 101; illustrated; index)
costs $19.40, including tax and shipping charges.
Theda Perdue is the Atlanta Distinguished Professor of Southern Culture at the Uni-versity
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Christopher A. Oakley is an associate professor
of history at East Carolina University.
Lang Baradell, chair of the publications subcommittee of the DCR World War I
Bicentennial Committee, led the group’s first meeting on February 16. Marketing special-ist
Bill Owens sold $685 worth of books at the North Carolina Council for Social Studies
Conference in Greensboro on February 25–26. Thomas Day: African American Furniture
Maker has been printed for the third time, and the site guide to Town Creek Indian
Mound has gone out of print.
The section will publish Stanley South’s Archaeology of Colonial Brunswick by the end of
the fiscal year. Because budget cuts have limited printing funds, the section is seeking out-side
financing to assist with the printing costs of this important new book. Anyone inter-ested
in donating for this purpose may send a check (made payable to Historical
Publications) to 4622 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-4622. On the memo line,
donors should write “Colonial Brunswick,” so that the funds will be designated toward its
publication. In exchange, each donor will receive a complimentary copy of the book and
will be acknowledged in the front matter.
The Division of State Historic Sites and Properties won several awards at the annual
meeting of the North Carolina Museums Council in Raleigh on March 8. Fort Dobbs site
manager Beth Hill won the Mid-Career Professional Award, and the site’s publication,
Fort Dobbs Gazette, was named best newsletter for the second time. Piedmont regional
supervisor Dale Coats received the Senior Professional Award, and Museum and Visitor
Services Section exhibit designer Amy Sawyer won the Staff Contribution Award. Finally,
former division director Jim McPherson was honored with the William T. Alderson
Lifetime Achievement Award.
4 6 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
Three current and one former member of the Division of State Historic Sites and Properties who
received awards at the annual meeting of the North Carolina Museums Council (left to right)—Jim
McPherson, Beth Hill, Amy Sawyer, and Dale Coats—are pictured with Linda Carlisle, secretary of
the Department of Cultural Resources; Richard Sceiford, president of the council; and Keith
Hardison, director of the division.
News from State Historic Sites and Properties
East Historic Sites Region
A combined team of East Region historic interpreters (Johnny Joyner and Jim McKee)
and Moores Creek National Battlefield interpreters (Tim Boyd and Jason Howell) won
the inaugural Adult Cape Fear History Bowl on February 11 at the New Hanover County
Courthouse. The other four teams were also composed of historians from southeastern
North Carolina and represented the Lower Cape Fear Chapter Sons of the American
Revolution, Friends of Old Wilmington, Federal Point Historic Preservation Society, and
New Hanover County Public Library/Cape Fear Museum.
In mid-January, construction began on a picnic shelter at the Governor Charles B.
Aycock Birthplace State Historic Site. Funding for the project was provided by the
Governor Charles B. Aycock Birthplace Advisory Committee and an anonymous donor,
in honor of North Carolina’s teachers. On February 18 the site hosted its first Civil War
trivia competition. Participants included a student from Wayne Community College,
members of the local military round table, and a Wayne County commissioner. On
March 2 the birthplace held its annual daffodil open house program. Local first graders
enjoyed making climbing bears, riding in a horse-drawn wagon, and learning about nine-teenth-
century farm chores, such as spinning and open-hearth cooking.
A new entrance sign was installed at the Historic Bath visitor center, featuring the divi-sion’s
logo and branding. Along with the replacement of twelve rotted window sashes on
the Van Der Veer and Bonner houses, this completes the list of approved repair projects
for 2009–2010. The Palmer-Marsh House textile refurbishment project was also con-cluded
with the installation of linen shades in the small parlor. The shades are rolled
around spring-loaded wooden barrels and feature decorative tassel pulls. This type of win-dow
dressing became popular by the third quarter of the eighteenth century, perhaps
because of its superior ability to filter out the harsh southern sun. Although less expensive
than drapes, linen shades are documented as having been used in some upper-class homes.
The Historic Bath Foundation provided funding for the shades. Bath’s beautification pro-ject
continued in March, when staff members and volunteers, under the oversight of
archaeologist Charles Ewen of East Carolina University, removed sick and unsightly box-woods
from the perimeter of the Bonner House. Research showed that plantings around
the house during the nineteenth century would have been minimal so that breezes could
blow under the building, helping to cool the home and control moisture problems. Two
native Mattamuskeet apple trees were planted in the backyard of the Bonner House.
At Historic Edenton, interpreters conducted tours emphasizing “Family Connections”
at the Iredell House and Cupola House during January. A special exhibit concerning
Harriet Jacobs was displayed at the visitor center throughout February and March in honor
of Black History and Women’s History months, respectively. Special Harriet Jacobs tours
were offered for eighth-grade students during March. The Iredell House hosted an
Easter egg and candy hunt for kindergarten and second-grade students on March 29–31.
Second-grade students participated in egg-dyeing workshops, learning how to use dyes
made from natural materials, such as onions and insects.
On February 21, the Historic Halifax Restoration Association held its annual meeting
in the visitor center at Halifax. The group approved funding for various projects at the site
during the year, including a new Montfort House wayside exhibit, which will be unveiled
on Halifax Day, and expenses associated with the annual observance.
With the assistance of exhibit designer Amy Sawyer and curator of cultural history
Michelle Lanier, Somerset Place has a new, two-panel exhibit for the site’s traveling trunk
program. Made From Off the Land contains a brief history of Somerset Place, images of the
site, descriptions of naturally made items in the traveling trunk, and contact information.
Staff members unveiled the panels at a Black History Month community program at the
Koinonia Christian Center in Greenville on February 20. Two days earlier, Somerset
Place received a surprise visit from North Carolina senator Margaret Dickson, who was
V O L U M E 5 8 , N U M B E R 2 , A P R I L 2 0 1 0 4 7
appointed to the senate on January 21 to represent Bladen and Cumberland counties. She
received a guided tour of the plantation.
Bids were accepted for the HVAC chiller replacement project, and the contract was
awarded to S E and M Constructors of Rocky Mount. The project involves replacing the
main air-conditioning system chiller and condensers at Somerset Place, upgrading electrical
panels, and adding heating and cooling units in the Colony House. To accommodate the
new condensers, the wooden louvers on the furnace building were modified and rein-stalled
by the division’s Craft Services Section in February.
North Carolina Transportation Museum
Comments by Walter R. Turner, historian for the North Carolina Transportation
Museum Foundation and author of Paving Tobacco Road: A Century of Progress by the
North Carolina Department of Transportation, were featured on the program, Blueprint North
Carolina: Planning for the Future, which aired on UNC-TV on February 9. Excerpts from
an interview with Turner appeared in a six-minute video that provided historical context
for the ensuing panel discussion. He cited the example of light rail in Charlotte as an indi-cation
that mass transit can succeed in the state. Panelists on the program included Terry
Gibson, state highway administrator of the North Carolina Department of Transportation;
Pat McCrory, former mayor of Charlotte and Republican candidate for governor in 2008;
and Marcus Brandon of the Transportation Equity Network.
Piedmont Historic Sites Region
Site managers and support groups at all seven Piedmont sites—Alamance Battleground,
Bennett Place, Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum, Duke Homestead, the House in the
Horseshoe, Historic Stagville, and Town Creek Indian Mound—were involved in drafting
memorandums of agreement and planning for the upcoming Second Saturdays programs.
Considerable time was spent by staff members and volunteers working on the business
document and preparing for three additional events at each site this summer.
Updates to the Alamance Battleground archaeological research project are on hold
after inclement weather prevented scheduled surveys from being conducted during Janu-ary
and February. Rain, snow, and cold temperatures forced cancellation of proposed
activities on both the original dates and make-up dates. A new survey has been set for
April 23–24, with rain dates of April 30 and May 1. Old restrooms and a hallway in the
visitor center have been converted to much-needed office and storage space. Division
craftsmen performed the majority of the work in the renovation project.
Tar Heel soldiers pitched their tents and performed military formations and drills on
the grounds of Bennett Place on February 27–28. Living historians demonstrated the daily
routine of the North Carolina soldier, displaying various uniforms and equipment that
soldiers were issued during the Civil War. Civilian interpreters worked in the kitchen and
prepared the garden for spring planting. More than six hundred visitors attended the
weekend event. Bennett Place received its second grant in three years from the North
Carolina Civil War Tourism Council. The matching grant will help support the
development and printing of the site’s interpretive manual for volunteers.
During February the Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum hosted a temporary exhibit
examining African Americans who have appeared on United States postage stamps. The
exhibit came to the site courtesy of Frank P. Scott, and featured stamps and accompanying
promotional posters produced by the United States Postal Service. Several notable North
Carolina natives were included in the display. John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk are
part of the “Legends of American Music: Jazz Musician” series. The most recent Black
Heritage series stamp depicts Anna Julia Cooper, a Raleigh native who was an author,
educator, and activist in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The exhibit also
displayed stamps that commemorated events of the civil rights movement, including the
1960 sit-in at the F. W. Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro.
4 8 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
Renovation has begun on Kimball Hall, the former dining hall of Palmer Memorial
Institute, built in the late 1920s. After this major restoration project is completed in Octo-ber,
the building will serve as a banquet and conference venue and, on occasion, as a tem-porary
gallery space. Several historical elements of the building will be retained, including
the slate roof, the unusual baroque-style attic ventilators, and the detailed central classical
portico with clustered Doric columns.
In February the thirty-first annual Revolutionary War battle reenactment at the House
in the Horseshoe was named one of the top twenty events by the Southeast Tourism
Society. This is the third year in a row that the site’s special program has received this
recognition.
The staff at Historic Stagville hosted twenty-five employees of the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill libraries for a tour and luncheon on February 5. Participants
learned of Stagville’s long relationship with the university through the Bennehan and
Cameron families, members of whom have combined for more than 157 years of service
as trustees of the university. Richard Bennehan, the originator of Stagville, purchased the
first books for Louis Round Wilson Library. He also contributed financially toward con-struction
of Old East dormitory, the oldest building on campus. Black History Month
attracted large school groups to the site, and students participated in a new educational
program titled, “The Archaeological Dig.” Staff members assisted schoolchildren as they
sifted through sand boxes to unearth nineteenth-century “artifacts” similar to items found
on the plantation. The Stagville staff also traveled to B. O. Barnes Elementary School in
Wilson on February 19 to present programs interpreting music, history, and the crafting of
cowry shell necklaces.
Town Creek Indian Mound kicked off the 2010 sky-gazing season with an Astronomy
Night in early January. Clear wintry nights offer some of the best skies for spotting celestial
objects, and on the moonless night of January 9, the stars twinkled even brighter for sky
watchers. Early in the evening, participants enjoyed a close-up view of Jupiter, as it was
positioned between the constellations Capricorn and Aquarius. Neptune was aligned
closely to Jupiter and was therefore difficult to locate. While waiting for Mars to rise in the
east, viewers learned about the winter constellations Orion, Taurus, and the Pleiades.
They also observed the Orion nebula, located in the “sheath” of Orion’s belt, sometimes
V O L U M E 5 8 , N U M B E R 2 , A P R I L 2 0 1 0 4 9
Alton Mitchell and Kimberly Puryear of Historic Stagville joined Johnny Joyner of Aycock
Birthplace at B. O. Barnes Elementary School in Wilson to present a Black History Month program
for 550 schoolchildren.
described as its “jewel.” By 8:00 P.M., the sky had completely darkened, and Mars began
to make its bright appearance. This was one of the best times of the year to view the
planet, because it was approaching opposition at the end of the month, when it would be
at its closest point to the Earth for the year and, therefore, at its brightest. Cups of hot
chocolate and apple cider provided much-appreciated warmth throughout the night.
State Capitol
Education in North Carolina was the
focus of a program at the State Capitol on
Saturday, January 23. Professor James
Leloudis of the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill presented his lec-ture,
“A Classroom Revolution: Public
Education and the Making of a New North
Carolina, 1880–1920.” Leloudis examined
the evolution of the state’s education system,
especially the role played by Gov. Charles B.
Aycock. After the lecture, a new exhibit
made its Raleigh premier. Previously on dis-play
at the Aycock Birthplace State Historic
Site in Fremont, The Education of the Deaf
and Blind in North Carolina features vintage
photographs, a timeline, and a device called
a “Perkins Brailler,” which performs writing
in Braille. In a special interactive section of
the exhibit, visitors were able to write their
names in Braille. The exhibit was created
through a joint effort of East Carolina Uni-versity’s
public history program and the
Division of State Historic Sites and Proper-ties,
with the assistance of the Department of
Cultural Resources, the Governor Morehead School for the Blind, the North Carolina
School for the Deaf, and the Eastern North Carolina School for the Deaf.
The exhibit opens with the introduction of Gov. John Motley Morehead, an early and
committed advocate of public education, who in the 1840s pressed the State to fund the
education of visually and hearing impaired students. Morehead’s twentieth-century succes-sor,
Charles B. Aycock, campaigned on the promise that schools would be his administra-tion’s
first priority. When Aycock became governor in 1901, there were only three
schools in the entire state specializing in the education of blind and deaf children. Shortly
after taking office, Aycock made good on his promise and pushed the General Assembly to
boost funding for education, including schools for the deaf and blind. The exhibit docu-ments
the governor’s role in improving educational opportunities for this special popula-tion,
along with the evolution of its separate educational system. Education of the Deaf and
Blind will remain on view at the Capitol through September 7, 2010.
West Historic Sites Region
Snow was the order of the day in the West Region beginning in December 2009 and
continuing into the new year. The weather affected operations at all sites, but especially at
Vance Birthplace, Horne Creek Living Historical Farm, and the Thomas Wolfe Memorial.
All sites are preparing for special Second Saturdays programming to be held during the
summer.
Reed Gold Mine is developing a new support group, the Reed Expansion Commit-tee,
which has incorporated and received its 501(c)(3) designation from the Internal
5 0 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
Employees of the Governor Morehead School
were among the many guests who attended the
opening of the exhibit, The Education of the Deaf
and Blind in North Carolina, at the State Capitol
on January 23.
Revenue Service. A fresh coat of paint was applied to the
auditorium, and work is proceeding on improvements to
the exhibit area and new on-site directional signage. The
Tar Heel Junior Historian group at Vance Birthplace,
which meets twice each month, continues to grow.
Approximately twenty-five junior historians have been
learning about crafts, chores, and daily life in nine-teenth-
century Reems Creek Valley. Black History
Month was celebrated in February with a series of special
events titled, “Behind the Big House.”
Historic interpreters at the Thomas Wolfe Memorial
attended the National Association of Interpretation
Region 3 conference in Asheville in February. Staff
members offered a behind-the-scenes look at interpretive strategies and challenges at the
site. The site staff also served as judges for the National History Day western regional
competition. Andy Reed, an intern from Western Carolina University, is working on
various projects ranging from collections care and management to educational program
development. A new traveling trunk program for fourth-grade students based on Thomas
Wolfe’s novella, The Lost Boy, has been developed. Program materials were carefully
matched to satisfy the North Carolina standard course of study for social studies and
language arts curriculum.
On February 15 staff members of Horne Creek Living Historical Farm attended a fruit
growers’ school in Mount Airy, taught by instructors from the Virginia Tech College of
Agriculture and Life Sciences. The site horticulturist, Jason Bowen, also attended classes
conducted by North Carolina State University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
On-site classes on pruning techniques were held at the Southern Heritage Apple Orchard
for students in Surry Community College’s horticulture program. The native Gulf Coast
sheep have blessed Horne Creek with four new lambs, some arriving in the midst of three
major winter storms. One lamb was donated to
the North Carolina Children’s Home in
Winston-Salem and was prominently featured
on a WXII-TV morning newscast. Preparations
for spring planting at Horne Creek are ongoing.
The support of Horne Creek’s nonprofit
organization, the North Carolina Living Histori-cal
Farm Committee, has been critical this year
to the site’s operation, enabling the staff to con-tinue
to provide quality educational and special
event programming, feed for the livestock, pesti-cides
and herbicides for the Southern Heritage
Apple Orchard, and other essential equipment.
The committee has also been generous in fund-ing
research that will enable the site to progress
with the initial phase of exhibit development in
the new visitor center.
A new wayside exhibit concerning the
monument erected in 1904 by the Daughters of
the American Revolution (DAR) has been
installed at the President James K. Polk State
Historic Site. Summer intern Jaime Torres from
Queens University worked closely with the local
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The new wayside exhibit at the President
James K. Polk State Historic Site.
On many days this winter the Vance Birthplace in
Buncombe County wore a mantle of snow.
DAR chapter to conduct research for the exhibit. Much of the brush that had grown in
recent years adjacent to the site entrance and near the monument has been removed.
The Fort Dobbs garrison held its annual workshop for volunteers on January 9 and
began creating the red regimental coats they will wear in May during a living history pro-gram
at Fort Necessity National Battlefield Park in Pennsylvania. The garrison will portray
George Washington’s regiment of Virginia provincials that encamped at the Great Mead-ows
from May to July 1754. North Carolina provincials were also sent to support Wash-ington
that spring but did not arrive in time to participate in the Battle of Fort Necessity,
the first major action of the French and Indian War. The garrison will be featured in a
living history presentation on June 12–13 titled, Victualizing the Troops.
February 27, 2010, marked the 250th anniversary of the 1760 Cherokee attack on Fort
Dobbs. On February 27–28, during the first living history program of the year at the site,
the Fort Dobbs garrison was joined by a contingent from the Southern Indian Department,
who provided insights from the perspective of the Cherokees during the French and
Indian War. An evening tour delivered a sense of what the hilltop was like 250 years ago
as yells and flashes of gunfire disturbed the quiet darkness. The major anniversary event at
Fort Dobbs will be the annual War for Empire 1760 program on April 9–11. The weekend
will include demonstrations, battle reenactments, historical vignettes, sutlers, encamp-ments,
and scholarly lectures by R. Scott Stephenson, curator of the Smithsonian’s Clash
of Empires exhibit, and Cherokee historian Tom Hatley. The Friends of Fort Dobbs have
commissioned a special limited edition commemorative medallion that will be available for
purchase.
A survey was recently distributed to teachers in the Iredell-Statesville Schools system
concerning their use of Fort Dobbs. Tom Kluwin of Gallaudet University’s Educational
Foundations and Research Department, who has forty-one years of teaching experience,
developed and analyzed the survey as part of the site’s Institute of Museums and Library
Services grant project. Based on the responses of 193 teachers, Kluwin is creating instruc-tional
materials to prepare teachers and students for site visits.
The Friends of Fort Dobbs board of trustees gathered for a preview of the recon-structed
fort on February 27. Site manager Beth Hill remarked that “the plans are the cul-mination
of six years of intensive work, including archaeological research, strategic
planning, the development of programs and expansion of operations, the award of the
Institute for Museum and Library Science grant, architectural work, and, in May, the
completion of the comprehensive site plan.” Ralph Bentley, chair of the Friends of Fort
Dobbs, encouraged board members to commit their time and resources to the develop-ment
of Fort Dobbs as the nation’s premier French and Indian War site. Bill Haley of
Haley Sharpe Design provided an overview of the comprehensive planning process, goals,
and outcomes, and showed several site options that are being considered after extensive
stakeholder discussions. Larry Gustke of North Carolina State University presented his
findings on tourism patterns in North Carolina and specifically how they relate to a devel-oped
Fort Dobbs. His assessment included the potential economic impact for Statesville
and Iredell County that would result from the re-creation of the fort.
Museum of the Albemarle
During the weekend of February 6–7, despite a rare snowfall in northeastern North
Carolina, the museum’s Civil War Living History Days commemorated the Battle of
Elizabeth City. Civilian and military reenactors examined the war from the perspectives of
individuals on the home front, soldiers, and sailors, while three lectures explored various
aspects of the conflict. Jason Madre discussed the recently successful underwater search in
the Pasquotank River for the Confederate gunship, CSS Appomattox, while Bruce Long
5 2 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
News from State History Museums
explored the destruction of the North Carolina Mosquito Fleet during the Burnside
expedition. Ronnie Woolard’s lecture, presented on Saturday and Sunday, was titled,
“The Impact of Chaplains on Civil War Soldiers.”
Museum of the Cape Fear Historical Complex
For the second year, the Museum of the Cape Fear Historical Complex collaborated
with the Cumberland County Public Library and Information Center to develop an
exhibit for the Big Read, an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts that
encourages reading by promoting the community-wide reading of a particular book. This
year’s exhibit focuses on Carson McCullers, author of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, and
explores how her book influenced the nation’s conscience and cultural arts. McCullers
began writing the book while living in Charlotte and continued to work on it after
moving to Fayetteville. Connecting to Carson McCullers opened on March 27 and will run
through May 30.
On January 28, the museum held its ninth annual Civil War Quiz Bowl, a contest that
increases in popularity each year. Approximately sixty spectators watched twenty contes-tants
that were divided into groups of ten. Emcee Jim Greathouse asked each contestant
questions from a category of their choosing, ranging from quotations, nicknames, and
battles and places, to cities and states. For nearly two hours, contestants played until they
received a third strike (three incorrect answers). Awards were given in the youth bracket
for ages seventeen and under, and the adult competition. The winners received a $25 gift
certificate from the museum’s gift shop, and their names will appear on a plaque near the
museum’s special exhibit gallery. This year’s winners were Kenly Stewart in the youth
category and Johnny Joyner, a historical interpreter at Aycock Birthplace in the Division
of State Historic Sites and Properties, in the adult division.
North Carolina Museum of History
In June 1957 Virginia Williams and six other African Americans sat in the “White
Only” side of the Royal Ice Cream Company in Durham. After refusing to leave, they
were arrested on trespassing charges. The protest took place nearly three years before the
famous sit-in on February 1, 1960, at the F. W. Woolworth store in Greensboro, which
sparked a national civil rights movement. On February 20 Williams and three other
participants in 1960 sit-ins shared their stories at the museum. Joining Williams were
Dr. Herman Thomas, who orga-nized
student sit-ins in Greensboro
after the Woolworth protest; Barbara
Woodhouse, who was arrested dur-ing
a student protest at Raleigh’s
Cameron Village; and George
Sanders, who was involved in several
sit-ins on Fayetteville and
Wilmington streets in downtown
Raleigh during the first week of
February 1960. They participated in
a panel discussion and question-and-answer
session following the screen-ing
of the award-winning documen-tary,
February One: The Story of the
Greensboro Four. Rebecca Cerese,
producer of the documentary, also
joined the discussion.
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Barbara Woodhouse (far right) was arrested at a sit-down
protest in Raleigh’s Cameron Village shopping center on
February 12, 1960. She shared her story at the North
Carolina Museum of History during a Black History
Month program. Image courtesy of the Raleigh News and
Observer.
The museum has one of the nation’s largest collections of Confederate flags, and con-servation
of these banners requires specialized textile treatment that costs approximately
$7,500 per flag. In recent months, two battle flags have been conserved through the fund-raising
efforts of North Carolina reenactment organizations. On December 12, 2009, the
Twenty-sixth Regiment North Carolina Troops, Reactivated, the state’s largest Civil War
reenactment group, unveiled the newly restored flag of the Forty-seventh Regiment
North Carolina Troops during a dedication ceremony at the museum. The historic banner
was captured at the Battle of Hatcher’s Run, Virginia, on October 27, 1864, by Sgt. Dan-iel
Murphy of the Nineteenth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. The flag was
returned to the State of North Carolina in 1905 but was in such poor condition that it has
remained in storage ever since. “This is the third flag project completed by the Twenty-sixth
Regiment North Carolina Troops for the museum,” said Skip Smith, colonel of the
organization. “With the help of many individuals and groups across the state, such as the
Forty-seventh Regiment North Carolina Troops and the Sons of Confederate Veterans
Camp #166 in Wake Forest, we were able to complete the fund-raising for this project.”
In February the tattered banner of the Eleventh Regiment North Carolina Troops, the
only regimental colors in Brig. Gen. James Johnston Pettigrew’s brigade that was not cap-tured
during the final Confederate charge at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863, was restored.
The Eleventh North Carolina Troops reenactment group raised the requisite funds to
underwrite the restoration work. On February 6, members of the Eleventh unveiled the
conserved banner at a dedication ceremony at the museum. The flag will be added to the
exhibit, A Call to Arms: North Carolina Military History Gallery.
State Employees’ Credit Union members provided $500,000 from the SECU Founda-tion
for the museum’s new state-of-the-art education center. The facility, which will pro-vide
innovative learning experiences for all ages, will be named the SECU Education
Center to honor the donation. “The grant from the SECU Foundation will enable the
museum to install the technology necessary to record and broadcast educational programs,
lectures, seminars, and meetings for dissemination across the state,” said Ken Howard,
museum director. “This technology will allow school groups that cannot visit the museum
in person to participate in the quality programming the museum provides in the same way
they would if they visited the museum.”
Because of a winter storm that hit Raleigh on January 30, the ninth annual African
American Cultural Celebration has been rescheduled for Saturday, June 5. More than fifty
presenters, including dancers, musicians, actors, authors, storytellers, artists, and crafts-people,
will celebrate the rich heritage of the state’s African American population, past and
present.
5 4 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
Members of the Twenty-sixth Regiment North Carolina Troops, Reactivated, with the conserved
battle flag of the Forty-seventh Regiment North Carolina Troops at the dedication ceremony at the
North Carolina Museum of History.
Staff Notes
At Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens, Nancy Packer was appointed curator of col-lections,
responsible for developing, managing, and interpreting the site’s diverse collection
of English and American decorative arts and artifacts. Rebecca Reimer, curator of educa-tion,
and historic interpreter Matthew Arthur were married on January 9.
In the Archives and Records Section of the Division of Historical Resources, three
longtime employees retired from the Imaging Unit of the Collections Management
Branch. Virginia “Gina” Fry, head of the unit, retired after twenty-five years of service.
Enno R. Wulff and Robert L. Harrelson, both of whom worked in the processing and
duplication laboratory, also retired. Eric Moser began work on January 1 as head of the
lab. On February 1, Trina Morgan joined the unit as a photography laboratory technician
II. On March 15, Rebecca C. Paden, records management analyst II in the Local Records
Unit of the Government Records Branch, was promoted to supervisor of the Imaging
Unit. Elizabeth E. Preston, an archivist I in the Local Records Unit, separated at the end
of January, and Francesca Perez, processing assistant IV in the Public Services Branch, was
promoted to fill the position.
In the Division of State Historic Sites and Properties, Lisa Cox began work as historic
site assistant at Alamance Battleground, effective January 1. At Duke Homestead, Mia Berg
was promoted to historic site manager I on January 17, and Matt Vernon, who transferred
from Bennett Place, was hired as historic interpreter II on February 2. Historic Halifax
temporary employee Margaret Holt was released from employment at the end of January
upon exhaustion of the site’s temporary funds, but she agreed to continue to work as a
volunteer. William Robert Germain of Historic Edenton received the Edenton Chamber
of Commerce Volunteer of the Year Award on January 21.
In the Division of State History Museums, Spencer Waldron retired as history museum
curator at the North Carolina Museum of History. Tim Ayers, an art handler at the
museum, resigned. At the Museum of the Albemarle, Wanda Stiles was promoted to asso-ciate
museum curator. Amie Williams joined the staff of the North Carolina Maritime
Museum at Southport as a historical interpreter.
Obituaries
Historian and archivist Richard William Iobst II, a Civil War specialist who was also
the first archivist at Western Carolina University and the first curator of the Museum of
Aviation at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia, died at Asheville on January 23, at the age
of seventy-five. Born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in 1934, Dick Iobst earned three
degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: an A.B. in 1955, a master’s
in 1962, and a doctorate in history in 1968. His doctoral dissertation examined the “nine
crucial months” in 1860–1861 when North Carolina mobilized for the Civil War. Iobst
served in the U.S. Army in France during the Cold War. His first position in the public
history field was as historian for the North Carolina Confederate Centennial Commission
in 1961–1962, in which he compiled an in-depth study of the Battle of New Bern. In
February 1962, he joined the Division of Historic Sites of the State Department of Archives
and History as a part-time historic sites specialist in the Highway Historical Markers pro-gram.
In 1965, the Confederate Centennial Commission published his study of the Sixth
North Carolina Regiment, The Bloody Sixth, for which Lou Manarin prepared a roster of
the officers and soldiers. Iobst joined the faculty at Western Carolina University in 1967 as
an assistant professor of history. Four years later, he became the first university archivist at
Cullowhee and, in 1976, assumed the responsibilities of coordinator of special collections
as well. In 1980, he was appointed first curator of the Museum of Aviation at Robins Air
Force Base in Warner Robins, Georgia. The following year, he became chief of the Office
of History at the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center. Iobst was the author of Civil War
Macon: The History of a Confederate City (1999), The Smith-McDowell House: A History
V O L U M E 5 8 , N U M B E R 2 , A P R I L 2 0 1 0 5 5
(2004), and more than twenty scholarly articles. He retired to Cullowhee, where he was
an active member of the Western North Carolina Civil War Round Table, focusing his
attention on the career of William Holland Thomas. Iobst is survived by his wife, Mary
Yeakle Phipps Iobst; a son, Carl Edwin Herbert Iobst; and a brother, Herbert Julius Scull.
* * *
Elizabeth Vann Moore, an authority on the history and architecture of the Albemarle
region and a pioneer of the historic preservation movement in northeastern North
Carolina, died in Edenton on the first day of 2010 at the age of ninety-seven. Born on
February 3, 1912, in Henderson, she received a B.A. degree in English from the
University of North Carolina in 1933 and a master’s in English from Columbia University
in 1938. After teaching stints at All Saints College in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and
St. Catherine’s School in Richmond, Virginia, she began work in Edenton in 1942 as a
specifications clerk for the U.S. Navy during construction of the nearby air base. She
subsequently served as an American Red Cross home services officer in Edenton. Miss
Moore adopted the town and Chowan County and devoted the following six decades to
research, writing, and serving as a font of information about the history and architecture
of the region for historians, archaeologists, preservationists, and genealogists. She con-ducted
the research for all nominations to the National Register of Historic Places for the
Town of Edenton and Chowan County, including three National Historic Landmark
properties. She was the author of Guide Book to Historic Edenton and Chowan County (1984),
editor of A Celebration of Faith: Three Hundred Years in the Life of St. Paul’s (2003), and
consultant to Thomas Butchko in the publication of Edenton: An Architectural Portrait
(1992). Her scholarship and service were recognized by the Historic Preservation Society
of North Carolina with its Cannon Cup in 1977; the North Caroliniana Society Award in
2004; the Lifetime Historian Award of the North Carolina Maritime History Council in
2007; lifetime achievement awards from both the Edenton Historical Commission and the
Cupola House Association; and the establishment of the Elizabeth Vann Moore Biennial
Series for Preservation Studies in 1999. During her long life of public service, she served as
an officer or active member of numerous organizations, including the Edenton Historical
Commission, the Cupola House Association, the Chowan County Courthouse Research
Committee, the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association, the Federation of
North Carolina Historical Societies, the North Carolina Committee for Continuing
Education in the Humanities, the Carolina Tercentenary Commission, the Carolina
Charter Corporation, the North Caroliniana Society, and America’s Four Hundredth
Anniversary Committee. She was buried in the churchyard of her beloved St. Paul’s
Episcopal Church in Edenton. Miss Moore is survived by her sister, Mary Moore Rowe,
of Peterborough, N.H., and three nephews.
5 6 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
“A Window on North Carolina in 1849,” Part II
By Maurice C. York
EDITOR’S NOTE: Maurice C. York is the assistant director for Special Collections at the J. Y.
Joyner Library at East Carolina University. He previously authored an article titled, “Alexandre
Vattemare’s System of International Exchanges in North Carolina,” in the spring 1998 issue of North
Carolina Libraries. Part I of this article appeared in the July 2009 issue of Carolina Comments.
Information concerning Vattemare and his exchange system, as well as the editorial method
employed in the transcription of these letters, may be found in the introduction to Part I.
Housed at the New York Public Library, the papers of Nicolas Marie Alexandre
Vattemare (1796–1864), a French ventriloquist, impersonator, and philanthropist, contain
a small group of letters that reveal much about the natural resources and economy of
North Carolina in 1849. On a visit to Raleigh early that year to promote his international
exchange program, Vattemare asked legislators and other interested persons to write essays
describing their sections of the state. These hastily penned reports depict North Carolina at
a relatively prosperous and progressive time in its history. The statements generally reflect
their authors’ pride in their regions and their optimistic view of the state’s future.1
In their letters to Vattemare, at least eight legislators described the natural resources and
principal economic activities of their legislative districts or counties. Four additional
men—lawyers, farmers, and a merchant—also contributed statements. Topics include
farming, manufacturing enterprises, and mining activities. The importance of transporta-tion
to the state’s economy emerges as a recurring theme in most of the documents.
Although varying in length and detail, as a whole these primary sources add depth to our
understanding of North Carolina during the antebellum period.
* * *
[H. K. Burgwyn,2 Raleigh, January 22, 1849]
Of the Country watered by the Roanoke River in North Carolina
[I]n its course, by its periodical over flows, like the Nile it leaves its deposite [sic] of . . .
rich mud, which on drying becomes hardened into solid cake. Thus in the course of time
raised an Alluvion of from a quarter to a mile in width & from 20–30 feet deep on the
margin of the River—which also at a time long anterior to the formation of this Alluvion,
called in the vernacular “fiss low grounds,” & still subject—except w[h]ere diked—to the
overflow of the River—caused the formation of a different soil raised about 15 to 20 feet
which tho very fertile, is not enriched by the usual deposites [sic] of the River, & thus is
not able to resist so well the barbarous system of exhausting culture common in that coun-try.
The Roanoke has no tributaries below the fall, & outside of this 2nd formation
termed “2d low grounds” the land rises an additional 20–30 feet into the uplands, having a
soil varying from a thin grey earth with a pine & oak growth, to a dark & richer loam
with a growth of Poplar, hickory[,] oak & dog wood[,] much of which say 1/3 is in its
original growth, the remainder greatly exhausted by a wretched system of continued culti-vation
without manures of any kind, & a large portion thrown aside as no longer reward-ing
the little labor bestowed upon it, but evincing by the wild growth that then springs up
a degree of vigor, which shows that it only requires to be returned to it those cereal con-stituents
that have been exhausted or originally wanting, to make it at small cost, abun-dantly
productive of useful fruits. This country produces naturally the apple (also in its
wild state), the peach (also from both of which a spirit is distilled that enters largely into
V O L U M E 5 8 , N U M B E R 2 , A P R I L 2 0 1 0 5 7
New Leaves
the consumption of the country[ )], the plum, the pear, the fig and all the fruits of the tem-perate
zone, the vine of various kinds, viz the muscatel, the muscadine, the scuppernong
from which a wine is commonly made, the fox, the Isabella & the Catawba, often grow-ing
to the size of 8 inches in diameter.* The principal crop’s [sic] are maize, wheat, oats,
Rye, Barley, Cotton[,] Tobacco, Hemp & flax, with Indigo & Madder have been grown.
Rice on the uplands is also a crop that yields from 25–30 bushel’s [sic] without the water
cultivation[.] Wheat on the low grounds yields from 20–30 bush. Maize from 30–50 bush.
The means of getting produce to market are by the River’s [sic] & by Rail Road to Peters-burg
at a cost of from 3 to 8 cts p bush, according to the distance. The Roanoke is naviga-ble,
in its present unimproved state, for vessel’s [sic] of 160 tons for 140 miles above its
mouth, during the winter months & during the summer for steam canal’s [sic] boats run-ning
through the canal3 to Norfolk drawing 5½ feet water. The towage of sail vessel’s [sic]
is from $60–$100 (varying different years) for vessel’s [sic] of 80–150 tons. . . .
The Diseases of the climate are few, and are greatly increased, by a careless & irregular
mode of life & exposure in hunting almost universal, and these are rendered much more
dangerous by the common & inordinant use of . . . a bad quality of spirit distilled from the
apple & from Maize. The fever & ague is the most common disease, but is always sub-jected
by moderate doses of quinine or other tonic’s [sic].
The Timber trees most common are the Oak of numerous varieties, growing to the
size of 5 to 6 feet diameter at the base[,] the Pine, the Black Walnut, from which furniture
is made, the Maple of several species, the Gum or Liquid-Amber, the Persimmon, bearing
a fruit similar to the Date, & affording a very hard & solid wood used for carpenters tool’s
[sic,] the Dog wood, used for the same, the Hickory[,] the Tulip or White Poplar, the
Elm, the Mulberry, there is also the Cypress & Juniper, from which immense quantities of
shingles & boards are made extremely lasting in their nature, the Cotton tree, the Bowl
gum, a light porous tree from which various utensils are made & very suitable for wooden
shoes much used in Europe[,] the Stringwood, the sassafrass [sic], from which the oil of
commerce is extracted.
The wild animals are the Deer, the grey fox, the opossum, which is caught in great
numbers & forms a food very like a pig. The Raccoon is also common & used for food.
The Great & Small Squirrel, . . . the Otter, the mink[,] the muskrat, the weasel & a few
Beaver remain. The birds are the Buzzard, the crow, the Wild Turkey in great numbers[,]
the bald Eagle, the Quail, the Woodcock, the meadow lark, the pigeon, & many smaller
birds. The rivers all in the spring of the year abound with the striped bass shad & herring,
& during the summer great quantities of Sturgeon with perch of various kind are caught &
serve as food for the inhabitants[.]
The Temperature of the climate is mild varying generally in the summer from 70°–85°
& the winter rarely below 25°. There are few days of winter too inclement for ploughing,
cattle & sheep are rarely housed, nor is it necessary except for a few weeks of midwinter[.]
This country is but very thinly populated, the wild spirit of adventure having carried a
large proportion of its former inhabitants, easily led away by the tales of Land Speculators
to the West where every thing was promised. Thus large bodies of land are left vacant &
untilled, so that the value is much diminished. The prices of the 1st low grounds are from
20–30$ p acre, of the 2d low grounds from 8–10$ & of the uplands from 2 to 6$ p acre.
[A]t these low rates uplands can be bought often including farm houses, stables, & other
buildings, within 3–5 miles of navigable waters or a less distance from Rail Road, and
with[in] 48 hours of New York, Phila[,] Baltimore and within a few hours of Norfolk[.]
The Harbour of Beaufort . . . lies about midway of the coast line of the State. . . . [I]t
is an estuary having two short stream’s [sic] running back, from one of which there was
formerly an attempt to connect this harbour with the Neuse River, but being laid out on
much too small a scale it failed & is no longer used.4 This harbour is the best for shelter &
5 8 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
*All the Foreign varieties of grape grow most luxuriantly, not excepting the white Malaga of
commerce[.]
more easy of access by ship’s [sic] of large draft of water than any from New York to
Pensacola with the single exception of Norfolk. There is at high tide not less than 24 feet
water, & about 18 at low water, over the bar, & the approach to passage over which, to a
secure roadsted, is in a right line. The Bay is about one & half miles wide & vessel’s [sic]
can run up the Lagoon’s [sic] either North or South for 6–8 miles with 12–15 feet water,
leaving behind them at the mouth of the harbour a newly built fortification of consider-able
strength.5 There is however a small village on the Harbour & ship stores are not in
large supply. In the year 1836 a ship of 800 tons was loaded in this Harbour for Liverpool
with a cargo of 1930 Bales of Cotton and 1200 Bbls of Turpentine, & drawing 18 feet
water was at sea in 45 minutes after weighing anchor.
[Jno. D. Hawkins,6 Raleigh, January 26, 1849]
In compliance with your request to point out some of the advantages to be derived to
the State of No. Carolina from the Rail Road act passed by the Genl. Assembly yester-day,
7 I proceed to say, this central Rail Road will lead from a point on the Wilmington
[and Raleigh] Rail Road8 near Goldsboro, to Raleigh, Salisbury and to Charlotte, a dis-tance
estimated at Two hundred and Twenty miles (220). It will pass through the counties
of Wayne, Johns[t]on, Wake, Chatham[,] Randolph, Davidson, Caboirus9 [sic], and
Mecklenburg. This is the richest agricultural region, apart from the low country, in the
State, and for want of an outlet has been more or less in a dormant condition. It will now
be revived into full action. Along the line of this Road, the mineral resources of the State
are abundant, beyond calculation; and notwithstanding the great many intelligent Citizens
of the State, who can tell you of the Geology, and Topography, of other States, the
intercummunications [sic], upon these subjects, in their own State, have never brought
them together, they have never investigated them at home and therefore but little is
known about them. Many of the first men in our state, had not found out that in
V O L U M E 5 8 , N U M B E R 2 , A P R I L 2 0 1 0 5 9
The harbor at Beaufort as depicted on an 1853 survey by Walter Gwynn of the right of way of the
Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad.
Chatham county, near to the seat of Government, there was an immense bed of Coal for-mation,
lying on both sides of Deep River, extending on both sides of the River, begining
[sic] Eight miles above Haywood, and extending for fifteen miles. How much farther, and
how wide from the River, investigations have not determined. It crops out in a great
monyplans [sic] so as to denote an enexhoustable [sic] quantity. The quality is so good, that
it does not contain one pound of [illegible] to the Bushel. Contains no Iron Piratus, and
Cokes equal to the best coal of New Castle, England. This has been tested by Mr. Silas
Burns10 of Raleigh, a gentleman of the best practical sense in the state upon these subjects.
This bed of Coal runs from No. East to So. West. Iron ore immediately alongside of this
coal is most abundant; yielding seventy percent, as tested by Mr. Burns, and he says, it is of
a soft maleable [sic] character, well suited for all purposes, denoting that part, from being
well suited for Hollow Ware, Pots Ovens &c. In the line of the Road there is also an
abundance of Lime for all uses & which will be needed in an Iron Foundary [sic]. There is
water power upon Deep River of the best sort which may also be found in all the country
bordering the Road, suited to all manufactoring [sic] purposes. From the cheapness of
[labor?], & provisions—the advantages of water power the great value and abundance of
the materials, and the facilities to be afforded by the Rail Road for transportation, and the
opening of the Rivers, that manufacturing can be carried on upon this road, and its vicin-ity,
as cheap, if not cheaper, than in any other Region in the United States. In the article
of Hollow Ware, supplied entirely from other states, it can be made here for $45 or $50
per ton, whereas the price abroad is [illegible] from $50 to $60 with freight and expenses to
be added on. This Road will pass over the Richest sections of the state, watered by the
Haw & Deep Rivers, Yadkin & Catawba, where Agriculture has long languished, for
want of an outlet to market, and by R. Road, now, every facility will be added which will
stimulate it into a production increased more than one hundred per cent. All the country
through which the Road will pass, is well suited to the culture of Tob[acc]o, wheat and
corn & cotton, articles too heavy, except cotton, to be sent to market heretofore to any
sort of advantage. In the county of Lincoln one hundred & Eighty miles from Petersburg
in Virginia Tob[acc]o was made, and Rolled the whole distance, about sixty years ago;
such was the desire for a market for an article suited to the growth of the country. In that
whole Region of country, in the counties around Charlotte, the terminus of the Rail
Road, the mineral resources are inexhaustable [sic], in Gold and Iron. . . . In this region,
Iron is made, now, in great quantities to supply the surrounding country & of a quality
superior to what is made, almost any where. And the quantity may be increased for any
demand. Here Rail Road Iron, can be made at the cheapest rate, for all Rail Road pur-poses.
These are some of the advantages of this great central state work. But when you
take into calculation the advantages derivable from its striking the Rivers above their falls,
and particularly the Yadkin above the Narrows, and the great addition they will make,
equal to the whole line of the Rail Road, thereby doubling its advantages, you will per-ceive
the advantages are only half deleniated [sic]. . . .
[S. F. Patterson,11 Raleigh, January 27, 1849]
Enclosed herewith you will find some additional account of the Gold Mines in my
District. . . .
[The statement below follows a general description of the landscape, natural resources,
and agricultural products of the Forty-eighth Senatorial District, comprised of Burke,
Caldwell, McDowell, and Wilkes counties:]
The Counties of Burke & McDowell also afford some of the finest Gold Mines of the
surface character, that are to be found in the State. Gold is also found in both the other
Counties of this District, but no mines in either of them have been worked to any great
extent. . . . The Gold in these mines is found in distinct particles of various sizes and of
every conceivable shape—the larger ones weighing frequently from three to five penny
weights and sometimes more. These generally have the appearance of having undergone
severe heat, amounting to fusion—and the great variety of shapes and forms which they
6 0 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
present has suggested the idea of having pins attached to them and of wearing them as
breast pins for ladies and gentlemen, for which purpose they are admirably adapted. In
some few instances large particles have been found with small portions of chrystallized [sic]
quartz imbedded so firmly in them, and so disposed as to present the appearance of a gold
ground richly set with diamonds. The particular kind of gold here described is found
intermixed generally with a layer or strata of pebbles or gravel underneath the surface and
varying from two to six feet in thickness and usually found in alluvial deposits in the low
or flat grounds along the streams—but not unfrequently [sic] valuable deposits are found to
exist on and near the surface of the ground on the hillsides adjacent—thus suggesting, if
not establishing the probability that the gold found in the alluvial deposits in the valleys
and low grounds at the base of the hills has been washed down from their sides and there
deposited. These surface mines are for the most part worked by slaves. The usual mode of
operating is to lay out in the low grounds a line of pits, say some eight or ten feet square.
The upper surface being removed until they come to the gravel or grit, as it is familiarly
termed by the miners, they throw this up into a large rocker, made somewhat like a small
[jelly?] boat, with [illegible] common shaped rockers underneath and cross bars on the
inside at convenient distances, which is kept constantly in motion by hand, rocking from
side to side, having all the time a constant stream of water running in at one end and out
at the other, while one hand throws in the grit and another keeps it well stirred until it is
washed perfectly clean, when it is thrown out. This operation is continued through the
day, and at night the rocker is stopped and cleaned, when the gold is found at the bottom,
lodged against the cross bars above mentioned[.] If the particles be very fine, which is gen-erally
the case[,] a quantity of quicksilver is put in to collect and unite them together in
one mass, which when done, it is taken out and the quicksilver burned off, leaving the
gold in a state of concretion. As soon as the whole layer or strata of grit is thrown out of
one pit, the exhaustion of which is generally indicated by striking a slate formation below,
another pit is commenced and the earth and grit of the second after being washed in the
rocker as before described is thrown into the first, and so continued throughout the whole
line. The Gold obtained is usually sent to the Mint at Charlotte and there coined. The
coinage at that place being indicated by having the letter C stamped upon the peices [sic].
It would be utterly impossible to tell with precision the amount of Gold extracted from
the mines in Burke & McDowell Counties, for although the regular Miners keep accurate
accounts of every days work, and can always tell what they have done & are doing, yet
V O L U M E 5 8 , N U M B E R 2 , A P R I L 2 0 1 0 6 1
A young woman keeps the log rockers in motion to sift the gold from the grit at Gold Hill, Rowan
County, ca. 1870.
there are a large number of persons who are only occasionally engaged in the business and
who keep no regular account of their operations. Besides the slaves engaged in the mines
are generally allowed a stated portion of time to work for themselves and the gold they
obtain in this way is not taken into account by any one. It is usually sold by the penny
weight to merchants and others, and to some extent it may be said to enter into the
general circulation of the Country.
[Richard Smith,12 Raleigh, n.d.]
I make the following reply to your enquiries respecting the Black Lead Mine, near the
City of Raleigh. . . . This great deposit of Black Lead lies a little West of Raleigh and is
crossed by all the roads that lead to Hillsborough & Chapel Hill. 3½ miles from Raleigh is
Crab Tree Creek which it crosses, and at a place called Guthrie’s Mine about 6 Miles from
Raleigh is the principal place where excavations have been made and about 1000 Barrels
have been obtain[e]d in its crude state. The whole formation consists of a number of
parall’d beds. They lie in a singular variety of isinglass rock (micacecous shistus) of a bright
cherry red[.] These Beds occur throughout a space of three fourths of a mile wide & ten
miles long[.] This Mine is not only of great comparative value and extent, But the ore
itself is of a superior quality, and believed to be inexaustable [sic]. The only Notice of this
mine which I have met with . . . in any foreign publication is contained in “Parkes”
Chemical Essays, printed at London in 1815[.]13
Professor Olmsted14 who made a Geological survey of this State in 1823 by appoint-ment
of the Legislature of the State says in his report. He never read of any mine of Plum-bago15
which can compare in extent with this, but have reason to believe it is the largest
mine on Record. It is mined and spread upon large Tables and carefully assorted[.] The
finest is No. 1 & second No. 2. The propri[e]tor is now erecting mills to grind it & has
obtained one to grind it dry & another to grind in Oil. These mills are from James
Bogardus of New York and are called Bogardus’ Excentric [sic] Patent Mills16 made for the
purpose of grinding this article and as soon as the mills are put into operation it is certain
the article can be furnished sufficient for all purposes wanting[.] It is [illegible] to Grind it in
Oil. I say Cotton seed oil is the best as it possesses the best body, particularly for all out
side painting of Roofs. It will be put up in Kegs of from 25 [pounds?] to 50, 100 to 500
[pound?] Kegs[.] The price for the best will be about 8 cents pr. [pound?] & a 2nd quality
c[.] 6 cents—and generally will range about the Price of White Lead.
It is called the Patent Metalic [sic] Carbon Paint and Manufactured from this Article
consisting of 5 parts of Carburit of Iron 10 of Silecious Minerals and 85 of Metalic [sic]
Carbon. It protects wooden Roofs from the effects of sparks or flakes of Fire—Metal roofs
from the action of water and rust more effectually than any other paint & there is none to
compare with it. And from its covering nearly twice the span is cheaper than any other
paint. It is very durable [and] will be good for 50 to 75 years.
Professor Richard Cowley Taylor,17 examined the mine on the 12th March 1845.
Taylor is one of the best Geologist[s] in the U. States. He says I found it very interesting
and hope this valuable & magnificent development of Plumbago, Black Lead, Graphite. It
is a substance which possessing incomparable properties has not yet received the attention
it deserves from practicable Men & has never been estimated as it deserves and to the
extent which I trust you will find it is destined.
But we will hazard one simple estimate on the moderate supposition, that an average
depth of fifteen yards of Mineral can be extracted by this process without recourse to
Shafts or Machinery the result estimating on the known specific gravity of pure Graphite
and assuming 8 Miles as length of the same there will be about 100,000 Tons of Workable
plumbago in every foot of breadth in the Vein. We need not descend to further depths
below. In all probability the stratum passes downwards far beyond the power of man to
fathom. It has never as yet been worked below water level. This Mine cost some upwards
of Twenty Thousand Dollars. Its estimated value is half a Million to One Million dollars.
6 2 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
PS Two of the best Geologists in England & America, has analized [sic] this Plumbago, Graphite, or
Black Lead and their report says it is composed of 90 parts of Carbon & 10 of Iron, that is the finest
of it No. 1 & No. 2[,] 85 of Carbon & 15 of Iron.
Notes
1. Correspondence (1838–1864), Letters Arranged by Place of Origin, New York–North Carolina,
Microfilm Reel 4, Alexandre Vattemare Papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, New York
Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.
2. Henry King Burgwyn, a native of New York, was a farmer who lived in Jackson, Northampton
County. 1850 Census, Northampton County.
3. Dismal Swamp Canal.
4. Probably Clubfoot and Harlow’s Creek Canal, which the North Carolina Assembly first
authorized in 1766 and supported, to no end, as late as 1849. Alan D. Watson, A History of New Bern
and Craven County (New Bern: Tryon Palace Commission, 1987), 133–135, 272–274.
5. Fort Macon.
6. John Davis Hawkins (1781–1858), an attorney and farmer, represented Franklin County in the
North Carolina House of Commons and Senate at various times between 1821 and 1841. He was
very interested in the development of railroads in the state, particularly the Raleigh and Gaston
Railroad. Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, s.v. “Hawkins, John Davis.”
7. The subject of Hawkins’s letter is the North Carolina Railroad. Incorporated by the General
Assembly on January 27, 1849 (not January 25, as the letter implies), it was completed in 1856 and
had a tremendous impact on the development of the state’s Piedmont section. Laws of North
Carolina, 1848–1849, c. 82; Encyclopedia of North Carolina, s.v. “North Carolina Railroad.”
8. In 1855 the name of this line was changed to Wilmington and Weldon Railroad. Encyclopedia of
North Carolina, s.v. “Wilmington & Weldon Railroad.”
9. Cabarrus.
10. A blacksmith from Massachusetts, Burns moved to Raleigh in the 1830s. With partners, he
developed extensive metalworking shops and in 1854 received a contract to manufacture fifty freight
cars for the North Carolina Railroad. Elizabeth Reid Murray, Wake, Capital County of North
Carolina. Volume 1: Prehistory through Centennial (Raleigh: Capital County Publishing Company,
1983), 282–283.
11. Samuel Finley Patterson (1799–1874) owned a farm in the Yadkin Valley of Caldwell County.
He and other investors in 1848 developed a cotton factory in Patterson, a community named for
him. A strong advocate of internal improvements, he served as president of the Raleigh and Gaston
Railroad from 1840 until 1845. In 1848, as chairman of the Committee on Internal Improvements,
he wrote the bill that chartered the North Carolina Railroad Company. Dictionary of North Carolina
Biography, s.v. “Patterson, Samuel Finley.”
12. A businessman in Raleigh with real estate in 1850 valued at $75,000. During the 1840s, Smith
and a partner bought six thousand acres of land west of Raleigh containing the plumbago or black
lead deposits described in this letter. Smith died in 1852. Mining operations continued until about
1857. 1850 Census, Wake County; Murray, Wake, Capital County, 284.
13. Samuel Parkes, Chemical Essays Principally Relating to the Arts and Manufactures of the British
Dominions (London: Printed for the author and published by Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, 1815).
14. The North Carolina Geological Survey was begun in 1822 under the direction of Denison
Olmsted (1791–1859), a professor at the University of North Carolina. Encyclopedia of North Carolina,
s.v. “Geological Survey.” Olmsted’s Report on the Geology of North-Carolina (1824–1825) was
published in two parts by the North Carolina Board of Agriculture. This report is cited in an article
(“Plumbago”) about the Wake County deposits in the Raleigh Register, and North-Carolina Gazette,
September 4, 1837.
15. Graphite.
16. See James Bogardus, Description of James Bogardus’ Patent Eccentric Universal Mill with Directions for
Use . . . (New York: n.p., 1855), copy in the Smithsonian Institution Libraries.
17. Richard Cowling Taylor (1789–1851) was the author of Statistics of Coal: the Geographical and
Geological Distribution of Mineral Combustables or Fossil Fuel, Including, Also, Notices and Localities of the
Various Mineral Bituminous Substances Employed in Arts and Manufactures . . . (Philadelphia: J. W.
Moore, 1848).
V O L U M E 5 8 , N U M B E R 2 , A P R I L 2 0 1 0 6 3
Historical Publications Section
Office of Archives and History
4622 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-4622
Telephone (919) 733-7442
Fax (919) 733-1439
www.ncpublications.com
Presorted Standard
U.S. Postage Paid
Raleigh, NC
Permit No. 187
Carolina Comments Jeffrey J. Crow, Editor in Chief
(ISSN 0576-808X) Kenrick N. Simpson, Editor

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Historic Sites Commemorate 140th Anniversary of
Bentonville and Other Sites Commemorate 145th Anniversaries
Over the weekend of March 20-21, exactly 145 years after the battle, more than fifty
thousand spectators and participants descended on Bentonville Battlefield State Historic
Site for the engagement’s reenactment, which is held every five years. Bentonville is the
largest Civil War battlefield in the state and the site of the only full-scale Confederate
offensive effort to stop the march of Gen. William T. Sherman’s army northward from
Savannah, Georgia. It was one of the last major battles of the war, with more than eighty
Carolina
Comments
Published Quarterly by the North Carolina Office of Archives and History
Thousands of spectators viewed the reenactment of the “Fight for Morris Farm” at Bentonville
Battlefield State Historic Site. All images courtesy of the Office of Archives and History unless
otherwise indicated.
thousand troops engaged over six thousand acres of farmland. Saturday’s weather, sunny
and in the seventies, contributed to the record crowds drawn by the opportunity to see
more than 3,500 reenactors in period clothing and settings depicting Union and Confed-erate
soldiers, civilian sutlers, and camp followers.
The event kicked off on Thursday, March 17, with a School Day program for three
hundred students from Four Oaks and Meadow elementary schools. The program featured
tours of the Harper House, discussions of slavery in the state, and demonstrations of infan-try,
artillery, blacksmithing, period medical practices, and cooking and other domestic
activities. Reenactors also began arriving that day. By the time the reenactment kicked off
on Saturday morning, the property surrounding the visitor center was filled with the
sights, sounds, and smells of reenactors beginning their busy day: cooking breakfast over
open fires; mustering in the nearby open field; and preparing for the climactic battle to be
held that afternoon.
Saturday’s reenactment depicted the “Fight for Morris Farm,” and Sunday’s scenario
included the “Last Grand Charge of the Army of Tennessee and Morgan’s Stand.” All of
these engagements occurred on March 19, 1865. A Confederate courier on the staff of
Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee described the last charge as “the most terrible battle I ever
imagined” and “the most fearful scene I have ever witnessed.”
Historian Mark Bradley explained each of the reenactments for the thousands of
spectators. Other lecturers discussed a variety of relevant topics. Curator Earl Ijames of the
3 4 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
For the Record
Once again North Carolina’s Department of Public
Instruction (DPI) has decided to overhaul the curricu-lum
standards for social studies in grades K–12. Both
U.S. history and North Carolina history could be
threatened. While neither subject would be eliminated
entirely, the newly proposed standards would suffuse
both subjects with “global studies” to make the courses
more “relevant” to today’s students. In 2001 DPI
attempted to eliminate North Carolina history from the
eighth-grade curriculum. That effort failed when, by a vote
of 115 to 0, the North Carolina House of Representatives
passed a bill to preserve the state’s history in the curriculum.
After hearing from more than seven
thousand people in January and February 2010, DPI scrapped its original plans to
rewrite the eleventh-grade curriculum in U.S. history. The most controversial part of
the new standards would have begun the course in 1877. The colonial era, American
Revolution, the Constitution, sectional conflict, slavery, westward expansion, Indian
removal, the Civil War, and Reconstruction, to name a few topics, would have been
ignored. For example,
the civil rights movement would have been taught without reference to slavery. The
Jim Crow era that engendered the fight for social justice and equal rights presumably
would have been taught. Segregation, however, was not mentioned in the proposed
standards. DPI explained that subjects that appeared to be omitted would be covered
in earlier grades, especially the seventh, when North Carolina history
and U.S. history are conjoined, and the tenth, when students study the Constitution.
A look at the curriculum standards for the seventh grade, however, reveals just as
many gaps. The standards appear to be topical with little or no reference to chronol-ogy.
Many teachers might prefer a topical approach, but without mileposts along the
way, students will have difficulty separating the constitutional debates of the 1780s
North Carolina Museum of History explored the African American experience in North
Carolina during the Civil War. Chris E. Fonvielle of the University of North Carolina
Wilmington examined the war in North Carolina prior to Bentonville. Suzy Barile of
Wake Technical Community College gave a lecture titled, “Undaunted Heart: The True
Story of a Southern Belle and a Yankee General.” Bentonville volunteers Linda
Humphries and Brenda McKean spoke on period mourning practices and Confederate
substitutes, respectively.
Including the staff at Bentonville, approximately seventy Department of Cultural
Resources employees from historic sites, museums, and administrative positions assisted
with the event. More than one hundred volunteers from the local community also partici-pated.
Nearly sixty volunteers worked the concession stands, which were provided by the
Bentonville Volunteer Fire Department; all proceeds from food sales will go toward
purchasing much-needed equipment and supplies. A team of about fifty volunteers from
Cornerstone Church in Four Oaks assisted with parking.
“All in all, it was a great weekend,” said Donny Taylor, site manager of Bentonville
Battlefield. “We consider it a huge success for the entire community.” The event was
sponsored by the Bentonville Battlefield Historical Association, the Johnston County
Visitors Bureau, the Civil War Preservation Trust, and the Division of State Historic Sites
and Properties. All proceeds from ticket sales will be used for battlefield interpretation and
preservation.
V O L U M E 5 8 , N U M B E R 2 , A P R I L 2 0 1 0 3 5
For the Record (continued)
from the sectional debates of the 1850s. Already more than half of the seniors at the
nation’s fifty-five top colleges do not know that Abraham Lincoln was president
during the Civil War. Another 40 percent cannot place the Civil War in the correct
half century. North Carolina’s proposed standards are not likely to improve such
alarming examples of historical amnesia.
One wonders what textbooks teachers will use in the seventh grade. Current
textbooks are written for the eighth grade. Many teachers have spent years, even
decades, mastering North Carolina history for the eighth grade. What happens when
a different corps of seventh-grade teachers is assigned North Carolina history?
For more than a century, the Office of Archives and History has promoted the
study of the state’s history through publications, museums, historic sites, and other
materials aimed at the eighth grade. The Tar Heel Junior Historian Association, with
more than five thousand mostly eighth-grade students, has thrived since 1953. Will
those programs receive as much attention and support in the seventh grade?
Fortunately, the Office of Archives and History has not had to lead the defense
of history as it did in 2001. Many citizens, teachers, and academics stated their
thoroughgoing opposition to the new standards being proposed. In particular, Holly
Brewer at North Carolina State University and Larry Tise at East Carolina University
rallied historians across the state. DPI insists that the new standards are only a draft
and that it will take a year or more to refine them. DPI is scheduled to release a
revised curriculum for U.S. history in April 2010. DPI can be certain that historians
will be watching.
James Madison once said: “A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a
free people.” History education gives citizens the context and background for under-standing
current conflicts and challenges. Without proper instruction in history,
citizen involvement and the protection of democratic rights remain at risk.
Jeffrey J. Crow
Several other state historic sites also commemorated the 145th anniversary of the end
of the Civil War with special programming. In fact, the progress of Federal forces across
eastern North Carolina in 1865 can be traced by the sequence of commemorative events
in 2010. The remembrance of the Second Battle for Fort Fisher began on the evening of
January 15, when Fort Fisher State Historic Site hosted a panel discussion titled, “Black
Men Bearing Freedom: U.S. Colored Troops and Their Impact on North Carolina.” In
January 1865 more than three thousand United States Colored Troops (USCT) landed at
Fort Fisher and subsequently participated in the campaign to capture Wilmington. Pre-sented
at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) and co-hosted by the
Upperman African American Cultural Center, the program explored the Civil War expe-riences
of African Americans in coastal North Carolina, both on the home front and on
the battlefield. The panelists examined a number of diverse topics, from the recruitment of
African Americans in eastern North Carolina into the Union army to the role that African
American military service played in postwar arguments for black citizenship. Participants
on the panel included Chris E. Fonvielle and John Haley of UNCW, Mark Elliot of the
University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Richard Reid of the University of
Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Heather Williams of the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill moderated the discussion. The program was funded in part by a grant from
the North Carolina Humanities Council, a nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment
for the Humanities.
On Saturday, January 16, Fort Fisher continued the commemorative programming
with its annual reenactment event. More than seven thousand visitors enjoyed infantry and
artillery demonstrations, period music, and Confederate and Union encampments on the
grounds. A re-creation of the attack on Shepherd’s Battery highlighted the program with
the participation of approximately 350 reenactors, including several USCT interpreters
from as far away as Ohio. The focus on the USCT continued with a presentation by
Richard Reid, author of Freedom for Themselves: North Carolina’s Black Soldiers in the Civil
War Era. Concluding Saturday’s festivities were lantern tours and a night firing of the
thirty-two-pound rifled and banded cannon at Shepherd’s Battery. Nearly forty volunteers
and staff members from the Department of Cultural Resources assisted with the event.
The commemoration of the 145th anniversary of the 1865 attack on Fort Anderson
opened with a program at the Southport Community Building in Southport on
February 16 that included presentations and a panel discussion that focused on archaeolog-ical
investigations at the site of the fort in 2009. The panelists were historian Chris E.
Fonvielle of UNCW, archaeologist Thomas Beaman of Wake Technical Community
3 6 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
Reenactors depict Confederate cavalrymen in the “Last Grand Charge of the Army of Tennessee” at
Bentonville Battlefield on March 21.
College, and assistant state archaeologist John Mintz of the Office of State Archaeology.
Fonvielle presented an account of the development of the fort and its place in the overall
scheme of the Cape Fear River defenses. Mintz described the archaeological investigations
involving the ADA-compliant walkway and gun emplacement #3 on Battery B at
Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site. Beaman discussed the excavation of
the barracks behind Battery A during the Peace College Field School last summer. The
program was attended by ninety-six people. The event was a cooperative effort between
the Friends of Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson, the North Carolina Maritime Museum at
Southport, the Friends of North Carolina Maritime Museum at Southport, and the
Southport Department of Tourism.
The anniversary of the fall of Fort Anderson
was commemorated at the historic site on Febru-ary
19–21. The program on Saturday focused on
the fight for Fort Anderson and on Sunday the
Battle of Town Creek, the last two Confederate
stands on the west bank of the Cape Fear River in
February 1865, prior to the fall of Wilmington.
More than 250 reenactors, sutlers, and civilians
participated in the event, which was viewed by
nearly three thousand spectators. Chris E.
Fonvielle, the guest speaker on Sunday, discussed
the two battles, and Mike Kochan, an authority
on Civil War-era torpedoes and co-author of
Torpedoes: Another Look at the Infernal Machines of
V O L U M E 5 8 , N U M B E R 2 , A P R I L 2 0 1 0 3 7
Historic interpreters portraying United States Colored Troops welcome a visitor to the
commemoration of the 145th anniversary of the Second Battle for Fort Fisher.
Ann Ortiz (left) and Marsha Harris (right) of the
Huckleberry Brothers band entertain guests with
period music at Fort Anderson on February 20.
the Civil War, made two presentations on Saturday. The Cape Fear Chapter #3 of the
United Daughters of the Confederacy hosted a mid-nineteenth-century fashion show.
Vignettes in guided lantern tours of the interior of Fort Anderson focused on the Confed-erate
evacuation and Federal occupation of the fort. There were medical demonstrations
on both days of the event, and the tour finale featured a graphic interpretation of military
surgeons at work. “Sutler Row” was inhabited by a number of general goods merchants, a
maker of ironclad models, two blacksmiths, a period photographer, and a chaplain.
Historical Commission Seeks to Diversify Capitol Memorials
At its meeting on August 27, 2009, the North Carolina Historical Commission
appointed a committee to examine alternatives for diversifying memorials in the State
Capitol and upon the grounds of Union Square, with the objective of commemorating
the contributions of Native Americans, African Americans, and women to North Carolina
history. The action came after the commission heard an appeal from retired Durham
educator Eddie Davis for the establishment of a “Hall of Inclusion” in the rotunda area on
3 8 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
Make Room for Historic Reenactors
Douglas A. Johnston
EDITOR’S NOTE: Douglas A. Johnston is a graduate of the University of North Carolina
(UNC) at Chapel Hill and its School of Law, a retired U.S. Navy commander, a Raleigh
attorney who teaches in the UNC School of Public Health, and a supporter of every effort
to preserve and present the state’s history.
Historic reenactors do not get the attention they deserve. Ironically, while
earning the highest praise from their audiences, they are too often taken lightly, or
worse, belittled and ignored. Some uninformed critics scorn reenactors as amateurs
and as grown-ups playing at war.
Yet for ages the paramount method of presenting history to the average audi-ence,
referred to then as the “common people,” was through drama. Of Shake-speare’s
plays, at least ten are histories, and others involve historical persons. As
time passed, museums became the preferred forum for presenting history, later
augmented by historic sites and parks. Today history is delivered through publica-tions,
classes, documentary films, exhibitions, preservation, and public history. It
is time now to fully and fairly recognize reenactors’ place in presenting history.
Underlying the criticism of reenactments is their characterization as a harmless
amusement. The charge that reenactments are for the entertainment of the
reenactors themselves is unfair. It is contradicted by the single, overriding reason
for their efforts—to bring alive the people and events of the period they represent.
With this focus, reenactors reach out beyond battlefields and veterans’ groups to a
range of community organizations from the PTA to the chamber of commerce.
Further, it is charged that reenactors present a narrow view of history—too
romanticized, too sentimentalized. Reenactors refute this charge, too, with their
broad commitment to education. Reenactors compare life in earlier societies with
that in later ones (seventeenth-century warfare with that of subsequent centuries),
cultural groups in different areas with one another (Confederate and Union sol-diers),
and the various coexisting segments within a community (planter gentility,
yeoman farmers, free blacks, and slaves). Like historical interpreters at historic sites,
reenactors depict domestic, business, and political life and attitudes, as well as illu-minate
different regional and racial perspectives. Like the best current research,
they discredit myths and dismantle stereotypes. (continued)
the second floor of the Capitol, and a response from John Sanders, formerly of the Insti-tute
of Government in Chapel Hill, arguing that the architectural integrity of the Capitol
would be compromised by such an intrusion. The commission has responsibility for his-toric
sites across the state and the review of all monuments on state property.
William S. Price Jr., former director of the Division of Archives and History, was
appointed to chair the Capitol Memorial Study Committee. Keith Hardison, Deanna
Mitchell, and Michelle Lanier, all of the Division of State Historic Sites and Properties,
and Michael Hill of the Research Branch, were assigned to the committee. Commission
members Freddie Parker and Harry Watson completed the group.
The committee’s charge is 1) to assay the present assemblage of plaques, memorials,
and statues in the Capitol and upon its grounds; 2) to evaluate the merits or advisability of
additional plaques, memorials, or statues dedicated specifically to addressing a perceived
underrepresentation of women and racial and ethnic minorities, including but not limited
to African Americans and American Indians; 3) to seek public comment in their delibera-tions;
and 4) to present the commission with alternatives to new memorials at the Capitol
V O L U M E 5 8 , N U M B E R 2 , A P R I L 2 0 1 0 3 9
Answering their critics, reenactors justify a legitimate claim for recognition and
for greater public support. Why should every community support reenactors?
Every reenactor group produces two important returns, derived from their roles as
gateway and rallying point.
Reenactors provide gateways to history: Reenactors present many people their
most powerful personal experience with history. Say what you will about best-selling
biographies and six-part documentaries, neither has quite the ability to
engage an individual as an encounter with flesh-and-blood reenactors. In a
reenactment, the remote picture in a history book becomes three-dimensional and
personal. People may discover a personal feeling for their genealogical chart when
they meet a reenactor who, much like their own great-great-grandfather, has an
attitude, a bold sense of humor, and a serious concern for family, faith, and
neighbors.
Reenactors do not merely create an appreciation for history; they also deepen
it. They address historic preservation issues and the search for solutions through
engineering, arts, collecting, restoration, woodworking, and other crafts. They help
history readers become history experts. Anyone who cares enough can be an
expert—no anointment is required. One who cares deeply about something, be it
snuffboxes or weaponry, soon distinguishes the real from the fake and the superior
from the ordinary, while appreciating the importance of the ordinary as well.
Expertise comes from care and work. The devil may be in the details, but there is
excitement there, too.
Reenactments are rallying points: A rallying point must be highly visible. Need
I say more? Reenactments are definitely visible! No other group is more centrally
placed, both physically and emotionally, to bring together those who share a con-cern
for history and for its tangible manifestations in museums, historic sites, and
historic districts. Reenactors are rallying points against threats to limited and valu-able
historic resources from the depredations of progress and the blight of insuffi-cient
funding. Reenactors influence attitudes toward history generally and toward
the creation of the kind of place a community wants to be.
For reenactors, being called “things of the past” and “relics” is high praise—
titles they assume with pride. Reenactors unite drama with the same attention to
detail and accuracy of the best museums and restorations. This combination,
unique to reenactors, awakens our excitement for history and keeps us coming
back for more!
or elsewhere in the state government complex, with these recommendations to address
location, subject matter, likenesses, and funding sources.
In pursuance of public input, the committee held three hearings: at the Young Men’s
Institute Cultural Center in Asheville on February 15; in the House chamber of the State
Capitol in Raleigh on February 18; and at East Carolina University in Greenville on
February 22. The group also invites comments on a blog attached to the State Capitol’s
Web site, www.nchistoricsites.org/capitol.
Early in their deliberations, committee members determined that they will not recom-mend
the removal of any existing monuments or memorials. Further, they commend the
work of the Freedom Monument Project and seek to complement, not supplant, the plan
for a public art project at the junction of Wilmington and Lane streets in downtown
Raleigh. In the initial meetings, the group found that North Carolina lags behind neigh-boring
states in diversifying memorials. Virginia has a new monument on its Capitol
Square depicting civil rights activists, Tennessee commemorates the Fourteenth and
Nineteenth amendments with interior bas relief depictions, and South Carolina in 2001
dedicated a large, multipanel African American monument on its Capitol grounds. The
committee plans to complete its study this spring, and the Historical Commission will
take up the matter again at its May meeting.
Division of Historical Resources Honors Service of Employees
On February 22, Department of Cultural Resources (DCR) secretary Linda Carlisle
presented service award certificates to twenty Raleigh-based employees of the Division of
Historical Resources. Secretary Carlisle was assisted by chief deputy secretary Debra Derr;
Jeffrey Crow, deputy secretary of the Office of Archives and History; and David Brook,
director of the Division of Historical Resources. The service of six other employees who
are either in regional offices or were on leave was acknowledged in absentia. During the
ceremony, Brook noted the 107-year-old tradition of service of the Office of Archives and
History. Secretary Carlisle and Deputy Secretary Crow delivered remarks honoring the
4 0 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
Division of Historical Resources award recipients with twenty-five, thirty, or thirty-five years of
service pose with Department of Cultural Resources administrators (left to right): Fofy Rocha, Vivian
McDuffie, Donna Kelly, Jeffrey Crow, Secretary Linda Carlisle, David Brook, and Deputy Secretary
Debra Derr.
recipients, and Deputy Secretary Derr presented tokens of appreciation on behalf of the
State. The DCR Equal Opportunity Diversity Choir, directed by Lorice Hyman, per-formed
the state song, “The Old North State.” A reception sponsored by the North
Carolina Literary and Historical Association followed the ceremony. Karen Pochala-Peck
chaired the arrangements committee.
The honorees were:
Five years: Douglas Brown, Archives and Records; Michael Coffey, Historical Publica-tions;
Jessica Dockery, Historic Preservation; Rebecca Johnson, Historic Preservation; and
Madeline Spencer, Archaeology.
Ten years: Laura Ketcham, Education Office; Karen Lisbeth Spiers, Archives and
Records; and Alison Thurman, Archives and Records.
Fifteen years: Richard Blanks, Archives and Records; Gail Elliott, Historical Publica-tions;
and Sarah Koonts, Archives and Records.
Twenty years: Claudia Brown, Historic Preservation; Chandrea Burch, Archives and
Records; Kimberly Cumber, Archives and Records; Alex (Chris) Meekins, Archives and
Records; William Garrett, Archives and Records; and Peter Sandbeck, Historic
Preservation.
Twenty-five years: David Brook, Division of Historical Resources; Donna Kelly,
Historical Publications; Vivian McDuffie, Research Branch; Fofy Rocha, Archives and
Records; and Frank (Mitch) Wilds, Historic Preservation.
Thirty years: Nick Lanier, Western Office; Mark Wilde-Ramsing, Archaeology; and
James Sorrell, Archives and Records.
Thirty-five years: Jeffrey Crow, Office of Archives and History.
David Brook Speaks at “Best of Our State” Event
On Saturday, January 9, 2010, at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, David Brook,
director of the Division of Historical Resources, presented a PowerPoint lecture titled,
“ ‘A Most Magnificent Spectacle’—Minnette Chapman Duffy and the New Bern Histori-cal
Celebration of 1929.” The presentation, before a crowd of approximately eight hun-dred
people, was part of Our State magazine’s twelfth annual “Best of Our State Weekend
Celebration” that highlighted North Carolina music, history, humor, literature, art, and
food. In his remarks, Brook underscored the Department of Cultural Resources’ commit-ment
to education and the creative economy.
V O L U M E 5 8 , N U M B E R 2 , A P R I L 2 0 1 0 4 1
“Best of Our State” speakers
at a reception at the Grove
Park Inn in Asheville (left to
right): David Brook; story-teller
Connie Regan-Blake;
wildlife expert Carol Buie-
Jackson; Cecilia Budd
Grimes, author of What it
Means to be Southern; John
Hart, author of The Last
Child; and Bernard Mann,
publisher of Our State
magazine. Image by Beth
Wyckoff, courtesy of Our
State magazine.
Roanoke Island Festival Park
Visitors to Roanoke Island Festival Park this spring can explore coastal Algonquian
culture and history in a new exhibit, American Indian Town. The town represents an Amer-ican
Indian community similar to those English explorers investigated during their voyages
to Roanoke Island and the surrounding area in the late sixteenth century. Homes, agricul-tural
areas, and work shelters line paths that wind through the park. Two longhouses rep-resent
the historical homes of American Indians from the region. One of the longhouses,
which stretches more than thirty feet, interprets the home of a leader of the community. A
smaller and partially built longhouse includes an interactive component that invites visitors
to help complete the structure. Both houses contain interactive exhibits that focus on the
developing relationship between the American Indian and English peoples during the late
sixteenth century. The exhibit includes a planting and harvesting area, where visitors can
learn the advanced nuances of American Indian farming techniques, and a ceremonial
dance circle. Three work shelters feature such activities as cordage (rope) making, mat and
basket weaving, net mending, food preparation, hide tanning, fishing, boatbuilding, and
gathering.
Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens
In December 2009, the Tryon Palace Council of Friends sponsored a delegation of
thirty-four members to Bern, Switzerland, for the opening of a special exhibition at the
Historischen Museum. BernNewBern: New Bern, North Carolina—300 Years Daughter City
in America illustrates the history of the Bernese emigration in the early eighteenth century.
The exhibit’s recurrent theme focuses on the development of New Bern, named after the
4 2 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
The unfinished longhouse in the American Indian Town exhibit at Roanoke Island Festival Park
encourages visitors to help complete the structure.
News from Office of Archives and History Administration
mother city of Bern, and the strong ties between
the two cities. Founded in 1191, Bern was
already more than five hundred years old when
Baron Christopher de Graffenried left the Swiss
capital to establish New Bern as a colonial out-post
in Carolina. The BernNewBern exhibit will
travel to Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens
in September, where it will be installed for New
Bern’s three-hundredth jubilee celebration. A
large contingent of visitors from Bern is expected
to attend the exhibit opening and participate in
New Bern’s tercentenary commemoration.
“The Palace, by George!” was the theme of a series of special programs that focused on
George Washington and early statehood. On February 20–21, in honor of the birthday of
the first president, tours of Tryon Palace discussed Washington’s 1791 visit to New Bern
and the festivities held in his honor. Visitors learned that the palace operated as the first
state capitol, and that George Washington stayed at the John Wright Stanly House during
his time in New Bern. On Saturday, the Tryon Palace Fife and Drum Corps performed
two concerts. As a special promotion for the weekend, all visitors named George or some
variation thereof were given a discount off the all-inclusive Governor’s Pass.
In remembrance of the 1862 Battle of New Bern and the ensuing occupation of the
city, Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens offered commemorative programming on
March 13–15, titled “New Bern Occupied: A Union City in the Midst of the Confeder-acy.”
Tours of the George Dixon House and the John Wright Stanly House concentrated
on the contemporary history of each building: a hospital for a Vermont regiment in the
midst of a yellow fever epidemic and the headquarters of Gen. Ambrose Burnside, respec-tively.
Costumed interpreters and period photographs added to the historical flavor of the
tours. Special activities for children included crafting patriotic cockades, rolling cartridges,
and military drills. Nineteenth-century games offered a diversion for those not militarily
inclined. On Sunday, guests were treated to the Civil War-era selections of local musician
Simon Spalding.
Archives and Records Section
In February the Special Collections Branch added the records of the American Lung
Association to the collection of organizational records at the North Carolina State
Archives. The American Lung Association, formed in 1904, is the nation’s oldest volun-tary
health organization. In 1906, North Carolina organized the first state-level chapter.
The collection includes the minutes of the Tuberculosis Association, which was the focus
of the organization in the beginning, as well as a complete set of Christmas Seals, the
major means of fund-raising for the association. The records of the American Lung
Association are a valuable addition to the organizational records at the State Archives
related to health and medical fields, which include the papers of the North Carolina
Nurses Association and the North Carolina Medical Society Alliance.
V O L U M E 5 8 , N U M B E R 2 , A P R I L 2 0 1 0 4 3
News from Historical Resources
A poster for the BernNewBern: New Bern, North
Carolina—300 Years Daughter City in America exhibit
currently on display at the Historischen Museum in
Bern, Switzerland, and coming to Tryon Palace in
September.
A 1960 sit-in at the F. W. Woolworth lunch counter in Charlotte; Richard Petty and
Miss Winston celebrating a mid-1970s victory at North Wilkesboro Speedway; and devas-tation
at Kitty Hawk by the March 1962 Ash Wednesday storm—these are but a few of
the myriad subjects featured in a new exhibit of photographs at the Outer Banks History
Center (OBHC) in Manteo. Bruce Roberts Photojournalist: Fifty Years of Capturing Change
opened on March 5 in the History Center Gallery and will run through the end of the
year. The exhibit is made possible by the generous support of the Frank Stick Memorial
Fund of the Outer Banks Community Foundation and Our State magazine.
After graduating from New York University and serving two years in the U.S. Air
Force, Bruce Roberts came to North Carolina to take photographs for the Hamlet News-
Messenger. In 1958, venerable editor Pete McKnight hired Roberts at the Charlotte
Observer, where he became part of a legendary team of young and talented photojournalists
who pioneered the use of thirty-five-millimeter cameras. Roberts’s photographs have been
published in national publications such as Life, Look, Time, and the Saturday Evening Post.
He also contributed cover photographs to The State magazine, now known as Our State.
Roberts has had his pictures and writings published in more than fifty books, most
recently Just Yesterday: North Carolina People and Places, published by the Historical
Publications Section in 2008.
The Outer Banks History Center Associates, the nonprofit support group of the
OBHC, hosted the premier of Rescue Men: The Story of the Pea Island Life Savers in the
Indoor Theater at Roanoke Island Festival Park on February 27. This documentary film
relates the story of an all-black lifesaving crew and its commanding officer, Richard
Etheridge. Born into slavery in 1842, Etheridge learned to read and write from the family
who owned him. He served with Union troops after the capture of Roanoke Island in
1862. He was selected as commander of the lifesaving station at Pea Island in 1880 and
served until 1900. Rescue Men chronicles the struggles of Etheridge and his men to over-come
racial hostility while striving to build the reputation of the lifesaving service along
the “Graveyard of the Atlantic.”
The film was produced by Los Angeles-based DreamQuest Productions. “We have
been working on this feature documentary film for the past year and a half,” said Allan
Smith, DreamQuest president. “It has been an incredible journey, and we feel very
fortunate to tell this remarkable story.” The producers worked closely with the
Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station Historic Site, the Outer Banks History Center, the
National Park Service Outer Banks Group, the Pea Island Lifesavers Museum in Manteo,
the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island, and the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau.
The standing-room-only audience of more than 250 people at the premier of Rescue
Men included Senator Marc Basnight of Manteo and Rear Admiral Stephen W. Rochon,
U.S. Coast Guard (Ret.). Admiral Rochon, who assisted the documentary project as a
4 4 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
KaeLi Spiers (right),
curator of the Outer
Banks History Center,
provided a personal tour
of the Manteo facility to
Rear Admiral and Mrs.
Stephen W. Rochon
before the premier of the
documentary film, Rescue
Men.
researcher and consultant, participated in a question-and-answer session at the conclusion
of the film. Since his retirement from the Coast Guard in 2007, Rochon has served as
Director of the Executive Residence and Chief Usher of the White House under Presi-dents
George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Among many other duties, he is responsible
for the care of the priceless artifacts, artwork, and original documents in the White House.
On the day of the premier of Rescue Men, he and his wife Shirley, also retired from the
Coast Guard, were given a personal tour of the OBHC stacks by curator KaeLi Spiers.
The Rochons particularly enjoyed the wreck reports and payroll records written by
Richard Etheridge, original drawings by Edwin Graves Champney and James Wells
Champney, and prints of other Civil War-era sketches from Harpers Weekly and the New
York Times in the custody of the OBHC.
Historical Publications Section
The section has published Haven on the
Hill: The History of North Carolina’s Dorothea
Dix Hospital, by Marjorie O’Rorke. The
book recounts the history of the Raleigh
hospital from the events surrounding the
1848 legislative authorization to fund and
build the state’s first mental hospital to the
ongoing debate over the property’s future
following the proposed closing of the facil-ity
in the early twenty-first century. The
narrative includes personal stories of staff
members and analysis of the trends and
developments that shaped the institution.
Of particular interest are changes in the per-ception
and treatment of the mentally ill
during Dix’s 150-year history.
Marjorie O’Rorke holds a bachelor’s
degree in history from Oberlin College and
a master’s degree in nursing from the Yale
University School of Nursing. During her
career, she has been a head nurse, instructor, and supervisor in medical/surgical nursing.
Since 1961, she has volunteered at Dorothea Dix Hospital. Documentary editor Lang
Baradell painstakingly edited, indexed, and shepherded the book through publication. On
Wednesday, March 17, more than seventy-five people gathered on the Dix campus to
hear the author discuss Haven on the Hill and sign copies of the book. During the day, 164
books were sold to current and former employees of the hospital and other interested par-ties.
It was perhaps the most successful one-day one-book event in the history of the
Historical Publications program.
Haven on the Hill (paperbound; pp. xiii, 321; illustrated; index) sells for $28.02, which
includes tax and shipping. Order from the Historical Publications Section (CC), Office of
Archives and History, 4622 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-4622. For credit
card orders, call (919) 733-7442, ext. 0, or access the section’s secure online store at
http://nc-historical-publications.stores. yahoo.net/.
Native Carolinians: The Indians of North Carolina, written by Theda Perdue and first
published in 1985, has been revised and updated by Christopher Arris Oakley. The
chapters on the Cherokees, the Lumbees, and present-day native Carolinians have been
expanded to incorporate important developments over the past quarter century. A number
of illustrations have been added, and a detailed index makes the text more accessible. The
British Museum graciously allowed the Historical Publications Section to reproduce in
color John White’s drawing, “The manner of their fishing,” on the front cover.
V O L U M E 5 8 , N U M B E R 2 , A P R I L 2 0 1 0 4 5
Marjorie O’Rorke, author of Haven on the Hill:
The History of North Carolina’s Dorothea Dix
Hospital, discussed and signed copies of her book
at the hospital on March 17.
The revised edition of Native Carolinians (paperbound; pp. xiv, 101; illustrated; index)
costs $19.40, including tax and shipping charges.
Theda Perdue is the Atlanta Distinguished Professor of Southern Culture at the Uni-versity
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Christopher A. Oakley is an associate professor
of history at East Carolina University.
Lang Baradell, chair of the publications subcommittee of the DCR World War I
Bicentennial Committee, led the group’s first meeting on February 16. Marketing special-ist
Bill Owens sold $685 worth of books at the North Carolina Council for Social Studies
Conference in Greensboro on February 25–26. Thomas Day: African American Furniture
Maker has been printed for the third time, and the site guide to Town Creek Indian
Mound has gone out of print.
The section will publish Stanley South’s Archaeology of Colonial Brunswick by the end of
the fiscal year. Because budget cuts have limited printing funds, the section is seeking out-side
financing to assist with the printing costs of this important new book. Anyone inter-ested
in donating for this purpose may send a check (made payable to Historical
Publications) to 4622 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-4622. On the memo line,
donors should write “Colonial Brunswick,” so that the funds will be designated toward its
publication. In exchange, each donor will receive a complimentary copy of the book and
will be acknowledged in the front matter.
The Division of State Historic Sites and Properties won several awards at the annual
meeting of the North Carolina Museums Council in Raleigh on March 8. Fort Dobbs site
manager Beth Hill won the Mid-Career Professional Award, and the site’s publication,
Fort Dobbs Gazette, was named best newsletter for the second time. Piedmont regional
supervisor Dale Coats received the Senior Professional Award, and Museum and Visitor
Services Section exhibit designer Amy Sawyer won the Staff Contribution Award. Finally,
former division director Jim McPherson was honored with the William T. Alderson
Lifetime Achievement Award.
4 6 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
Three current and one former member of the Division of State Historic Sites and Properties who
received awards at the annual meeting of the North Carolina Museums Council (left to right)—Jim
McPherson, Beth Hill, Amy Sawyer, and Dale Coats—are pictured with Linda Carlisle, secretary of
the Department of Cultural Resources; Richard Sceiford, president of the council; and Keith
Hardison, director of the division.
News from State Historic Sites and Properties
East Historic Sites Region
A combined team of East Region historic interpreters (Johnny Joyner and Jim McKee)
and Moores Creek National Battlefield interpreters (Tim Boyd and Jason Howell) won
the inaugural Adult Cape Fear History Bowl on February 11 at the New Hanover County
Courthouse. The other four teams were also composed of historians from southeastern
North Carolina and represented the Lower Cape Fear Chapter Sons of the American
Revolution, Friends of Old Wilmington, Federal Point Historic Preservation Society, and
New Hanover County Public Library/Cape Fear Museum.
In mid-January, construction began on a picnic shelter at the Governor Charles B.
Aycock Birthplace State Historic Site. Funding for the project was provided by the
Governor Charles B. Aycock Birthplace Advisory Committee and an anonymous donor,
in honor of North Carolina’s teachers. On February 18 the site hosted its first Civil War
trivia competition. Participants included a student from Wayne Community College,
members of the local military round table, and a Wayne County commissioner. On
March 2 the birthplace held its annual daffodil open house program. Local first graders
enjoyed making climbing bears, riding in a horse-drawn wagon, and learning about nine-teenth-
century farm chores, such as spinning and open-hearth cooking.
A new entrance sign was installed at the Historic Bath visitor center, featuring the divi-sion’s
logo and branding. Along with the replacement of twelve rotted window sashes on
the Van Der Veer and Bonner houses, this completes the list of approved repair projects
for 2009–2010. The Palmer-Marsh House textile refurbishment project was also con-cluded
with the installation of linen shades in the small parlor. The shades are rolled
around spring-loaded wooden barrels and feature decorative tassel pulls. This type of win-dow
dressing became popular by the third quarter of the eighteenth century, perhaps
because of its superior ability to filter out the harsh southern sun. Although less expensive
than drapes, linen shades are documented as having been used in some upper-class homes.
The Historic Bath Foundation provided funding for the shades. Bath’s beautification pro-ject
continued in March, when staff members and volunteers, under the oversight of
archaeologist Charles Ewen of East Carolina University, removed sick and unsightly box-woods
from the perimeter of the Bonner House. Research showed that plantings around
the house during the nineteenth century would have been minimal so that breezes could
blow under the building, helping to cool the home and control moisture problems. Two
native Mattamuskeet apple trees were planted in the backyard of the Bonner House.
At Historic Edenton, interpreters conducted tours emphasizing “Family Connections”
at the Iredell House and Cupola House during January. A special exhibit concerning
Harriet Jacobs was displayed at the visitor center throughout February and March in honor
of Black History and Women’s History months, respectively. Special Harriet Jacobs tours
were offered for eighth-grade students during March. The Iredell House hosted an
Easter egg and candy hunt for kindergarten and second-grade students on March 29–31.
Second-grade students participated in egg-dyeing workshops, learning how to use dyes
made from natural materials, such as onions and insects.
On February 21, the Historic Halifax Restoration Association held its annual meeting
in the visitor center at Halifax. The group approved funding for various projects at the site
during the year, including a new Montfort House wayside exhibit, which will be unveiled
on Halifax Day, and expenses associated with the annual observance.
With the assistance of exhibit designer Amy Sawyer and curator of cultural history
Michelle Lanier, Somerset Place has a new, two-panel exhibit for the site’s traveling trunk
program. Made From Off the Land contains a brief history of Somerset Place, images of the
site, descriptions of naturally made items in the traveling trunk, and contact information.
Staff members unveiled the panels at a Black History Month community program at the
Koinonia Christian Center in Greenville on February 20. Two days earlier, Somerset
Place received a surprise visit from North Carolina senator Margaret Dickson, who was
V O L U M E 5 8 , N U M B E R 2 , A P R I L 2 0 1 0 4 7
appointed to the senate on January 21 to represent Bladen and Cumberland counties. She
received a guided tour of the plantation.
Bids were accepted for the HVAC chiller replacement project, and the contract was
awarded to S E and M Constructors of Rocky Mount. The project involves replacing the
main air-conditioning system chiller and condensers at Somerset Place, upgrading electrical
panels, and adding heating and cooling units in the Colony House. To accommodate the
new condensers, the wooden louvers on the furnace building were modified and rein-stalled
by the division’s Craft Services Section in February.
North Carolina Transportation Museum
Comments by Walter R. Turner, historian for the North Carolina Transportation
Museum Foundation and author of Paving Tobacco Road: A Century of Progress by the
North Carolina Department of Transportation, were featured on the program, Blueprint North
Carolina: Planning for the Future, which aired on UNC-TV on February 9. Excerpts from
an interview with Turner appeared in a six-minute video that provided historical context
for the ensuing panel discussion. He cited the example of light rail in Charlotte as an indi-cation
that mass transit can succeed in the state. Panelists on the program included Terry
Gibson, state highway administrator of the North Carolina Department of Transportation;
Pat McCrory, former mayor of Charlotte and Republican candidate for governor in 2008;
and Marcus Brandon of the Transportation Equity Network.
Piedmont Historic Sites Region
Site managers and support groups at all seven Piedmont sites—Alamance Battleground,
Bennett Place, Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum, Duke Homestead, the House in the
Horseshoe, Historic Stagville, and Town Creek Indian Mound—were involved in drafting
memorandums of agreement and planning for the upcoming Second Saturdays programs.
Considerable time was spent by staff members and volunteers working on the business
document and preparing for three additional events at each site this summer.
Updates to the Alamance Battleground archaeological research project are on hold
after inclement weather prevented scheduled surveys from being conducted during Janu-ary
and February. Rain, snow, and cold temperatures forced cancellation of proposed
activities on both the original dates and make-up dates. A new survey has been set for
April 23–24, with rain dates of April 30 and May 1. Old restrooms and a hallway in the
visitor center have been converted to much-needed office and storage space. Division
craftsmen performed the majority of the work in the renovation project.
Tar Heel soldiers pitched their tents and performed military formations and drills on
the grounds of Bennett Place on February 27–28. Living historians demonstrated the daily
routine of the North Carolina soldier, displaying various uniforms and equipment that
soldiers were issued during the Civil War. Civilian interpreters worked in the kitchen and
prepared the garden for spring planting. More than six hundred visitors attended the
weekend event. Bennett Place received its second grant in three years from the North
Carolina Civil War Tourism Council. The matching grant will help support the
development and printing of the site’s interpretive manual for volunteers.
During February the Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum hosted a temporary exhibit
examining African Americans who have appeared on United States postage stamps. The
exhibit came to the site courtesy of Frank P. Scott, and featured stamps and accompanying
promotional posters produced by the United States Postal Service. Several notable North
Carolina natives were included in the display. John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk are
part of the “Legends of American Music: Jazz Musician” series. The most recent Black
Heritage series stamp depicts Anna Julia Cooper, a Raleigh native who was an author,
educator, and activist in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The exhibit also
displayed stamps that commemorated events of the civil rights movement, including the
1960 sit-in at the F. W. Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro.
4 8 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
Renovation has begun on Kimball Hall, the former dining hall of Palmer Memorial
Institute, built in the late 1920s. After this major restoration project is completed in Octo-ber,
the building will serve as a banquet and conference venue and, on occasion, as a tem-porary
gallery space. Several historical elements of the building will be retained, including
the slate roof, the unusual baroque-style attic ventilators, and the detailed central classical
portico with clustered Doric columns.
In February the thirty-first annual Revolutionary War battle reenactment at the House
in the Horseshoe was named one of the top twenty events by the Southeast Tourism
Society. This is the third year in a row that the site’s special program has received this
recognition.
The staff at Historic Stagville hosted twenty-five employees of the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill libraries for a tour and luncheon on February 5. Participants
learned of Stagville’s long relationship with the university through the Bennehan and
Cameron families, members of whom have combined for more than 157 years of service
as trustees of the university. Richard Bennehan, the originator of Stagville, purchased the
first books for Louis Round Wilson Library. He also contributed financially toward con-struction
of Old East dormitory, the oldest building on campus. Black History Month
attracted large school groups to the site, and students participated in a new educational
program titled, “The Archaeological Dig.” Staff members assisted schoolchildren as they
sifted through sand boxes to unearth nineteenth-century “artifacts” similar to items found
on the plantation. The Stagville staff also traveled to B. O. Barnes Elementary School in
Wilson on February 19 to present programs interpreting music, history, and the crafting of
cowry shell necklaces.
Town Creek Indian Mound kicked off the 2010 sky-gazing season with an Astronomy
Night in early January. Clear wintry nights offer some of the best skies for spotting celestial
objects, and on the moonless night of January 9, the stars twinkled even brighter for sky
watchers. Early in the evening, participants enjoyed a close-up view of Jupiter, as it was
positioned between the constellations Capricorn and Aquarius. Neptune was aligned
closely to Jupiter and was therefore difficult to locate. While waiting for Mars to rise in the
east, viewers learned about the winter constellations Orion, Taurus, and the Pleiades.
They also observed the Orion nebula, located in the “sheath” of Orion’s belt, sometimes
V O L U M E 5 8 , N U M B E R 2 , A P R I L 2 0 1 0 4 9
Alton Mitchell and Kimberly Puryear of Historic Stagville joined Johnny Joyner of Aycock
Birthplace at B. O. Barnes Elementary School in Wilson to present a Black History Month program
for 550 schoolchildren.
described as its “jewel.” By 8:00 P.M., the sky had completely darkened, and Mars began
to make its bright appearance. This was one of the best times of the year to view the
planet, because it was approaching opposition at the end of the month, when it would be
at its closest point to the Earth for the year and, therefore, at its brightest. Cups of hot
chocolate and apple cider provided much-appreciated warmth throughout the night.
State Capitol
Education in North Carolina was the
focus of a program at the State Capitol on
Saturday, January 23. Professor James
Leloudis of the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill presented his lec-ture,
“A Classroom Revolution: Public
Education and the Making of a New North
Carolina, 1880–1920.” Leloudis examined
the evolution of the state’s education system,
especially the role played by Gov. Charles B.
Aycock. After the lecture, a new exhibit
made its Raleigh premier. Previously on dis-play
at the Aycock Birthplace State Historic
Site in Fremont, The Education of the Deaf
and Blind in North Carolina features vintage
photographs, a timeline, and a device called
a “Perkins Brailler,” which performs writing
in Braille. In a special interactive section of
the exhibit, visitors were able to write their
names in Braille. The exhibit was created
through a joint effort of East Carolina Uni-versity’s
public history program and the
Division of State Historic Sites and Proper-ties,
with the assistance of the Department of
Cultural Resources, the Governor Morehead School for the Blind, the North Carolina
School for the Deaf, and the Eastern North Carolina School for the Deaf.
The exhibit opens with the introduction of Gov. John Motley Morehead, an early and
committed advocate of public education, who in the 1840s pressed the State to fund the
education of visually and hearing impaired students. Morehead’s twentieth-century succes-sor,
Charles B. Aycock, campaigned on the promise that schools would be his administra-tion’s
first priority. When Aycock became governor in 1901, there were only three
schools in the entire state specializing in the education of blind and deaf children. Shortly
after taking office, Aycock made good on his promise and pushed the General Assembly to
boost funding for education, including schools for the deaf and blind. The exhibit docu-ments
the governor’s role in improving educational opportunities for this special popula-tion,
along with the evolution of its separate educational system. Education of the Deaf and
Blind will remain on view at the Capitol through September 7, 2010.
West Historic Sites Region
Snow was the order of the day in the West Region beginning in December 2009 and
continuing into the new year. The weather affected operations at all sites, but especially at
Vance Birthplace, Horne Creek Living Historical Farm, and the Thomas Wolfe Memorial.
All sites are preparing for special Second Saturdays programming to be held during the
summer.
Reed Gold Mine is developing a new support group, the Reed Expansion Commit-tee,
which has incorporated and received its 501(c)(3) designation from the Internal
5 0 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
Employees of the Governor Morehead School
were among the many guests who attended the
opening of the exhibit, The Education of the Deaf
and Blind in North Carolina, at the State Capitol
on January 23.
Revenue Service. A fresh coat of paint was applied to the
auditorium, and work is proceeding on improvements to
the exhibit area and new on-site directional signage. The
Tar Heel Junior Historian group at Vance Birthplace,
which meets twice each month, continues to grow.
Approximately twenty-five junior historians have been
learning about crafts, chores, and daily life in nine-teenth-
century Reems Creek Valley. Black History
Month was celebrated in February with a series of special
events titled, “Behind the Big House.”
Historic interpreters at the Thomas Wolfe Memorial
attended the National Association of Interpretation
Region 3 conference in Asheville in February. Staff
members offered a behind-the-scenes look at interpretive strategies and challenges at the
site. The site staff also served as judges for the National History Day western regional
competition. Andy Reed, an intern from Western Carolina University, is working on
various projects ranging from collections care and management to educational program
development. A new traveling trunk program for fourth-grade students based on Thomas
Wolfe’s novella, The Lost Boy, has been developed. Program materials were carefully
matched to satisfy the North Carolina standard course of study for social studies and
language arts curriculum.
On February 15 staff members of Horne Creek Living Historical Farm attended a fruit
growers’ school in Mount Airy, taught by instructors from the Virginia Tech College of
Agriculture and Life Sciences. The site horticulturist, Jason Bowen, also attended classes
conducted by North Carolina State University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
On-site classes on pruning techniques were held at the Southern Heritage Apple Orchard
for students in Surry Community College’s horticulture program. The native Gulf Coast
sheep have blessed Horne Creek with four new lambs, some arriving in the midst of three
major winter storms. One lamb was donated to
the North Carolina Children’s Home in
Winston-Salem and was prominently featured
on a WXII-TV morning newscast. Preparations
for spring planting at Horne Creek are ongoing.
The support of Horne Creek’s nonprofit
organization, the North Carolina Living Histori-cal
Farm Committee, has been critical this year
to the site’s operation, enabling the staff to con-tinue
to provide quality educational and special
event programming, feed for the livestock, pesti-cides
and herbicides for the Southern Heritage
Apple Orchard, and other essential equipment.
The committee has also been generous in fund-ing
research that will enable the site to progress
with the initial phase of exhibit development in
the new visitor center.
A new wayside exhibit concerning the
monument erected in 1904 by the Daughters of
the American Revolution (DAR) has been
installed at the President James K. Polk State
Historic Site. Summer intern Jaime Torres from
Queens University worked closely with the local
V O L U M E 5 8 , N U M B E R 2 , A P R I L 2 0 1 0 5 1
The new wayside exhibit at the President
James K. Polk State Historic Site.
On many days this winter the Vance Birthplace in
Buncombe County wore a mantle of snow.
DAR chapter to conduct research for the exhibit. Much of the brush that had grown in
recent years adjacent to the site entrance and near the monument has been removed.
The Fort Dobbs garrison held its annual workshop for volunteers on January 9 and
began creating the red regimental coats they will wear in May during a living history pro-gram
at Fort Necessity National Battlefield Park in Pennsylvania. The garrison will portray
George Washington’s regiment of Virginia provincials that encamped at the Great Mead-ows
from May to July 1754. North Carolina provincials were also sent to support Wash-ington
that spring but did not arrive in time to participate in the Battle of Fort Necessity,
the first major action of the French and Indian War. The garrison will be featured in a
living history presentation on June 12–13 titled, Victualizing the Troops.
February 27, 2010, marked the 250th anniversary of the 1760 Cherokee attack on Fort
Dobbs. On February 27–28, during the first living history program of the year at the site,
the Fort Dobbs garrison was joined by a contingent from the Southern Indian Department,
who provided insights from the perspective of the Cherokees during the French and
Indian War. An evening tour delivered a sense of what the hilltop was like 250 years ago
as yells and flashes of gunfire disturbed the quiet darkness. The major anniversary event at
Fort Dobbs will be the annual War for Empire 1760 program on April 9–11. The weekend
will include demonstrations, battle reenactments, historical vignettes, sutlers, encamp-ments,
and scholarly lectures by R. Scott Stephenson, curator of the Smithsonian’s Clash
of Empires exhibit, and Cherokee historian Tom Hatley. The Friends of Fort Dobbs have
commissioned a special limited edition commemorative medallion that will be available for
purchase.
A survey was recently distributed to teachers in the Iredell-Statesville Schools system
concerning their use of Fort Dobbs. Tom Kluwin of Gallaudet University’s Educational
Foundations and Research Department, who has forty-one years of teaching experience,
developed and analyzed the survey as part of the site’s Institute of Museums and Library
Services grant project. Based on the responses of 193 teachers, Kluwin is creating instruc-tional
materials to prepare teachers and students for site visits.
The Friends of Fort Dobbs board of trustees gathered for a preview of the recon-structed
fort on February 27. Site manager Beth Hill remarked that “the plans are the cul-mination
of six years of intensive work, including archaeological research, strategic
planning, the development of programs and expansion of operations, the award of the
Institute for Museum and Library Science grant, architectural work, and, in May, the
completion of the comprehensive site plan.” Ralph Bentley, chair of the Friends of Fort
Dobbs, encouraged board members to commit their time and resources to the develop-ment
of Fort Dobbs as the nation’s premier French and Indian War site. Bill Haley of
Haley Sharpe Design provided an overview of the comprehensive planning process, goals,
and outcomes, and showed several site options that are being considered after extensive
stakeholder discussions. Larry Gustke of North Carolina State University presented his
findings on tourism patterns in North Carolina and specifically how they relate to a devel-oped
Fort Dobbs. His assessment included the potential economic impact for Statesville
and Iredell County that would result from the re-creation of the fort.
Museum of the Albemarle
During the weekend of February 6–7, despite a rare snowfall in northeastern North
Carolina, the museum’s Civil War Living History Days commemorated the Battle of
Elizabeth City. Civilian and military reenactors examined the war from the perspectives of
individuals on the home front, soldiers, and sailors, while three lectures explored various
aspects of the conflict. Jason Madre discussed the recently successful underwater search in
the Pasquotank River for the Confederate gunship, CSS Appomattox, while Bruce Long
5 2 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
News from State History Museums
explored the destruction of the North Carolina Mosquito Fleet during the Burnside
expedition. Ronnie Woolard’s lecture, presented on Saturday and Sunday, was titled,
“The Impact of Chaplains on Civil War Soldiers.”
Museum of the Cape Fear Historical Complex
For the second year, the Museum of the Cape Fear Historical Complex collaborated
with the Cumberland County Public Library and Information Center to develop an
exhibit for the Big Read, an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts that
encourages reading by promoting the community-wide reading of a particular book. This
year’s exhibit focuses on Carson McCullers, author of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, and
explores how her book influenced the nation’s conscience and cultural arts. McCullers
began writing the book while living in Charlotte and continued to work on it after
moving to Fayetteville. Connecting to Carson McCullers opened on March 27 and will run
through May 30.
On January 28, the museum held its ninth annual Civil War Quiz Bowl, a contest that
increases in popularity each year. Approximately sixty spectators watched twenty contes-tants
that were divided into groups of ten. Emcee Jim Greathouse asked each contestant
questions from a category of their choosing, ranging from quotations, nicknames, and
battles and places, to cities and states. For nearly two hours, contestants played until they
received a third strike (three incorrect answers). Awards were given in the youth bracket
for ages seventeen and under, and the adult competition. The winners received a $25 gift
certificate from the museum’s gift shop, and their names will appear on a plaque near the
museum’s special exhibit gallery. This year’s winners were Kenly Stewart in the youth
category and Johnny Joyner, a historical interpreter at Aycock Birthplace in the Division
of State Historic Sites and Properties, in the adult division.
North Carolina Museum of History
In June 1957 Virginia Williams and six other African Americans sat in the “White
Only” side of the Royal Ice Cream Company in Durham. After refusing to leave, they
were arrested on trespassing charges. The protest took place nearly three years before the
famous sit-in on February 1, 1960, at the F. W. Woolworth store in Greensboro, which
sparked a national civil rights movement. On February 20 Williams and three other
participants in 1960 sit-ins shared their stories at the museum. Joining Williams were
Dr. Herman Thomas, who orga-nized
student sit-ins in Greensboro
after the Woolworth protest; Barbara
Woodhouse, who was arrested dur-ing
a student protest at Raleigh’s
Cameron Village; and George
Sanders, who was involved in several
sit-ins on Fayetteville and
Wilmington streets in downtown
Raleigh during the first week of
February 1960. They participated in
a panel discussion and question-and-answer
session following the screen-ing
of the award-winning documen-tary,
February One: The Story of the
Greensboro Four. Rebecca Cerese,
producer of the documentary, also
joined the discussion.
V O L U M E 5 8 , N U M B E R 2 , A P R I L 2 0 1 0 5 3
Barbara Woodhouse (far right) was arrested at a sit-down
protest in Raleigh’s Cameron Village shopping center on
February 12, 1960. She shared her story at the North
Carolina Museum of History during a Black History
Month program. Image courtesy of the Raleigh News and
Observer.
The museum has one of the nation’s largest collections of Confederate flags, and con-servation
of these banners requires specialized textile treatment that costs approximately
$7,500 per flag. In recent months, two battle flags have been conserved through the fund-raising
efforts of North Carolina reenactment organizations. On December 12, 2009, the
Twenty-sixth Regiment North Carolina Troops, Reactivated, the state’s largest Civil War
reenactment group, unveiled the newly restored flag of the Forty-seventh Regiment
North Carolina Troops during a dedication ceremony at the museum. The historic banner
was captured at the Battle of Hatcher’s Run, Virginia, on October 27, 1864, by Sgt. Dan-iel
Murphy of the Nineteenth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. The flag was
returned to the State of North Carolina in 1905 but was in such poor condition that it has
remained in storage ever since. “This is the third flag project completed by the Twenty-sixth
Regiment North Carolina Troops for the museum,” said Skip Smith, colonel of the
organization. “With the help of many individuals and groups across the state, such as the
Forty-seventh Regiment North Carolina Troops and the Sons of Confederate Veterans
Camp #166 in Wake Forest, we were able to complete the fund-raising for this project.”
In February the tattered banner of the Eleventh Regiment North Carolina Troops, the
only regimental colors in Brig. Gen. James Johnston Pettigrew’s brigade that was not cap-tured
during the final Confederate charge at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863, was restored.
The Eleventh North Carolina Troops reenactment group raised the requisite funds to
underwrite the restoration work. On February 6, members of the Eleventh unveiled the
conserved banner at a dedication ceremony at the museum. The flag will be added to the
exhibit, A Call to Arms: North Carolina Military History Gallery.
State Employees’ Credit Union members provided $500,000 from the SECU Founda-tion
for the museum’s new state-of-the-art education center. The facility, which will pro-vide
innovative learning experiences for all ages, will be named the SECU Education
Center to honor the donation. “The grant from the SECU Foundation will enable the
museum to install the technology necessary to record and broadcast educational programs,
lectures, seminars, and meetings for dissemination across the state,” said Ken Howard,
museum director. “This technology will allow school groups that cannot visit the museum
in person to participate in the quality programming the museum provides in the same way
they would if they visited the museum.”
Because of a winter storm that hit Raleigh on January 30, the ninth annual African
American Cultural Celebration has been rescheduled for Saturday, June 5. More than fifty
presenters, including dancers, musicians, actors, authors, storytellers, artists, and crafts-people,
will celebrate the rich heritage of the state’s African American population, past and
present.
5 4 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
Members of the Twenty-sixth Regiment North Carolina Troops, Reactivated, with the conserved
battle flag of the Forty-seventh Regiment North Carolina Troops at the dedication ceremony at the
North Carolina Museum of History.
Staff Notes
At Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens, Nancy Packer was appointed curator of col-lections,
responsible for developing, managing, and interpreting the site’s diverse collection
of English and American decorative arts and artifacts. Rebecca Reimer, curator of educa-tion,
and historic interpreter Matthew Arthur were married on January 9.
In the Archives and Records Section of the Division of Historical Resources, three
longtime employees retired from the Imaging Unit of the Collections Management
Branch. Virginia “Gina” Fry, head of the unit, retired after twenty-five years of service.
Enno R. Wulff and Robert L. Harrelson, both of whom worked in the processing and
duplication laboratory, also retired. Eric Moser began work on January 1 as head of the
lab. On February 1, Trina Morgan joined the unit as a photography laboratory technician
II. On March 15, Rebecca C. Paden, records management analyst II in the Local Records
Unit of the Government Records Branch, was promoted to supervisor of the Imaging
Unit. Elizabeth E. Preston, an archivist I in the Local Records Unit, separated at the end
of January, and Francesca Perez, processing assistant IV in the Public Services Branch, was
promoted to fill the position.
In the Division of State Historic Sites and Properties, Lisa Cox began work as historic
site assistant at Alamance Battleground, effective January 1. At Duke Homestead, Mia Berg
was promoted to historic site manager I on January 17, and Matt Vernon, who transferred
from Bennett Place, was hired as historic interpreter II on February 2. Historic Halifax
temporary employee Margaret Holt was released from employment at the end of January
upon exhaustion of the site’s temporary funds, but she agreed to continue to work as a
volunteer. William Robert Germain of Historic Edenton received the Edenton Chamber
of Commerce Volunteer of the Year Award on January 21.
In the Division of State History Museums, Spencer Waldron retired as history museum
curator at the North Carolina Museum of History. Tim Ayers, an art handler at the
museum, resigned. At the Museum of the Albemarle, Wanda Stiles was promoted to asso-ciate
museum curator. Amie Williams joined the staff of the North Carolina Maritime
Museum at Southport as a historical interpreter.
Obituaries
Historian and archivist Richard William Iobst II, a Civil War specialist who was also
the first archivist at Western Carolina University and the first curator of the Museum of
Aviation at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia, died at Asheville on January 23, at the age
of seventy-five. Born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in 1934, Dick Iobst earned three
degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: an A.B. in 1955, a master’s
in 1962, and a doctorate in history in 1968. His doctoral dissertation examined the “nine
crucial months” in 1860–1861 when North Carolina mobilized for the Civil War. Iobst
served in the U.S. Army in France during the Cold War. His first position in the public
history field was as historian for the North Carolina Confederate Centennial Commission
in 1961–1962, in which he compiled an in-depth study of the Battle of New Bern. In
February 1962, he joined the Division of Historic Sites of the State Department of Archives
and History as a part-time historic sites specialist in the Highway Historical Markers pro-gram.
In 1965, the Confederate Centennial Commission published his study of the Sixth
North Carolina Regiment, The Bloody Sixth, for which Lou Manarin prepared a roster of
the officers and soldiers. Iobst joined the faculty at Western Carolina University in 1967 as
an assistant professor of history. Four years later, he became the first university archivist at
Cullowhee and, in 1976, assumed the responsibilities of coordinator of special collections
as well. In 1980, he was appointed first curator of the Museum of Aviation at Robins Air
Force Base in Warner Robins, Georgia. The following year, he became chief of the Office
of History at the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center. Iobst was the author of Civil War
Macon: The History of a Confederate City (1999), The Smith-McDowell House: A History
V O L U M E 5 8 , N U M B E R 2 , A P R I L 2 0 1 0 5 5
(2004), and more than twenty scholarly articles. He retired to Cullowhee, where he was
an active member of the Western North Carolina Civil War Round Table, focusing his
attention on the career of William Holland Thomas. Iobst is survived by his wife, Mary
Yeakle Phipps Iobst; a son, Carl Edwin Herbert Iobst; and a brother, Herbert Julius Scull.
* * *
Elizabeth Vann Moore, an authority on the history and architecture of the Albemarle
region and a pioneer of the historic preservation movement in northeastern North
Carolina, died in Edenton on the first day of 2010 at the age of ninety-seven. Born on
February 3, 1912, in Henderson, she received a B.A. degree in English from the
University of North Carolina in 1933 and a master’s in English from Columbia University
in 1938. After teaching stints at All Saints College in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and
St. Catherine’s School in Richmond, Virginia, she began work in Edenton in 1942 as a
specifications clerk for the U.S. Navy during construction of the nearby air base. She
subsequently served as an American Red Cross home services officer in Edenton. Miss
Moore adopted the town and Chowan County and devoted the following six decades to
research, writing, and serving as a font of information about the history and architecture
of the region for historians, archaeologists, preservationists, and genealogists. She con-ducted
the research for all nominations to the National Register of Historic Places for the
Town of Edenton and Chowan County, including three National Historic Landmark
properties. She was the author of Guide Book to Historic Edenton and Chowan County (1984),
editor of A Celebration of Faith: Three Hundred Years in the Life of St. Paul’s (2003), and
consultant to Thomas Butchko in the publication of Edenton: An Architectural Portrait
(1992). Her scholarship and service were recognized by the Historic Preservation Society
of North Carolina with its Cannon Cup in 1977; the North Caroliniana Society Award in
2004; the Lifetime Historian Award of the North Carolina Maritime History Council in
2007; lifetime achievement awards from both the Edenton Historical Commission and the
Cupola House Association; and the establishment of the Elizabeth Vann Moore Biennial
Series for Preservation Studies in 1999. During her long life of public service, she served as
an officer or active member of numerous organizations, including the Edenton Historical
Commission, the Cupola House Association, the Chowan County Courthouse Research
Committee, the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association, the Federation of
North Carolina Historical Societies, the North Carolina Committee for Continuing
Education in the Humanities, the Carolina Tercentenary Commission, the Carolina
Charter Corporation, the North Caroliniana Society, and America’s Four Hundredth
Anniversary Committee. She was buried in the churchyard of her beloved St. Paul’s
Episcopal Church in Edenton. Miss Moore is survived by her sister, Mary Moore Rowe,
of Peterborough, N.H., and three nephews.
5 6 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
“A Window on North Carolina in 1849,” Part II
By Maurice C. York
EDITOR’S NOTE: Maurice C. York is the assistant director for Special Collections at the J. Y.
Joyner Library at East Carolina University. He previously authored an article titled, “Alexandre
Vattemare’s System of International Exchanges in North Carolina,” in the spring 1998 issue of North
Carolina Libraries. Part I of this article appeared in the July 2009 issue of Carolina Comments.
Information concerning Vattemare and his exchange system, as well as the editorial method
employed in the transcription of these letters, may be found in the introduction to Part I.
Housed at the New York Public Library, the papers of Nicolas Marie Alexandre
Vattemare (1796–1864), a French ventriloquist, impersonator, and philanthropist, contain
a small group of letters that reveal much about the natural resources and economy of
North Carolina in 1849. On a visit to Raleigh early that year to promote his international
exchange program, Vattemare asked legislators and other interested persons to write essays
describing their sections of the state. These hastily penned reports depict North Carolina at
a relatively prosperous and progressive time in its history. The statements generally reflect
their authors’ pride in their regions and their optimistic view of the state’s future.1
In their letters to Vattemare, at least eight legislators described the natural resources and
principal economic activities of their legislative districts or counties. Four additional
men—lawyers, farmers, and a merchant—also contributed statements. Topics include
farming, manufacturing enterprises, and mining activities. The importance of transporta-tion
to the state’s economy emerges as a recurring theme in most of the documents.
Although varying in length and detail, as a whole these primary sources add depth to our
understanding of North Carolina during the antebellum period.
* * *
[H. K. Burgwyn,2 Raleigh, January 22, 1849]
Of the Country watered by the Roanoke River in North Carolina
[I]n its course, by its periodical over flows, like the Nile it leaves its deposite [sic] of . . .
rich mud, which on drying becomes hardened into solid cake. Thus in the course of time
raised an Alluvion of from a quarter to a mile in width & from 20–30 feet deep on the
margin of the River—which also at a time long anterior to the formation of this Alluvion,
called in the vernacular “fiss low grounds,” & still subject—except w[h]ere diked—to the
overflow of the River—caused the formation of a different soil raised about 15 to 20 feet
which tho very fertile, is not enriched by the usual deposites [sic] of the River, & thus is
not able to resist so well the barbarous system of exhausting culture common in that coun-try.
The Roanoke has no tributaries below the fall, & outside of this 2nd formation
termed “2d low grounds” the land rises an additional 20–30 feet into the uplands, having a
soil varying from a thin grey earth with a pine & oak growth, to a dark & richer loam
with a growth of Poplar, hickory[,] oak & dog wood[,] much of which say 1/3 is in its
original growth, the remainder greatly exhausted by a wretched system of continued culti-vation
without manures of any kind, & a large portion thrown aside as no longer reward-ing
the little labor bestowed upon it, but evincing by the wild growth that then springs up
a degree of vigor, which shows that it only requires to be returned to it those cereal con-stituents
that have been exhausted or originally wanting, to make it at small cost, abun-dantly
productive of useful fruits. This country produces naturally the apple (also in its
wild state), the peach (also from both of which a spirit is distilled that enters largely into
V O L U M E 5 8 , N U M B E R 2 , A P R I L 2 0 1 0 5 7
New Leaves
the consumption of the country[ )], the plum, the pear, the fig and all the fruits of the tem-perate
zone, the vine of various kinds, viz the muscatel, the muscadine, the scuppernong
from which a wine is commonly made, the fox, the Isabella & the Catawba, often grow-ing
to the size of 8 inches in diameter.* The principal crop’s [sic] are maize, wheat, oats,
Rye, Barley, Cotton[,] Tobacco, Hemp & flax, with Indigo & Madder have been grown.
Rice on the uplands is also a crop that yields from 25–30 bushel’s [sic] without the water
cultivation[.] Wheat on the low grounds yields from 20–30 bush. Maize from 30–50 bush.
The means of getting produce to market are by the River’s [sic] & by Rail Road to Peters-burg
at a cost of from 3 to 8 cts p bush, according to the distance. The Roanoke is naviga-ble,
in its present unimproved state, for vessel’s [sic] of 160 tons for 140 miles above its
mouth, during the winter months & during the summer for steam canal’s [sic] boats run-ning
through the canal3 to Norfolk drawing 5½ feet water. The towage of sail vessel’s [sic]
is from $60–$100 (varying different years) for vessel’s [sic] of 80–150 tons. . . .
The Diseases of the climate are few, and are greatly increased, by a careless & irregular
mode of life & exposure in hunting almost universal, and these are rendered much more
dangerous by the common & inordinant use of . . . a bad quality of spirit distilled from the
apple & from Maize. The fever & ague is the most common disease, but is always sub-jected
by moderate doses of quinine or other tonic’s [sic].
The Timber trees most common are the Oak of numerous varieties, growing to the
size of 5 to 6 feet diameter at the base[,] the Pine, the Black Walnut, from which furniture
is made, the Maple of several species, the Gum or Liquid-Amber, the Persimmon, bearing
a fruit similar to the Date, & affording a very hard & solid wood used for carpenters tool’s
[sic,] the Dog wood, used for the same, the Hickory[,] the Tulip or White Poplar, the
Elm, the Mulberry, there is also the Cypress & Juniper, from which immense quantities of
shingles & boards are made extremely lasting in their nature, the Cotton tree, the Bowl
gum, a light porous tree from which various utensils are made & very suitable for wooden
shoes much used in Europe[,] the Stringwood, the sassafrass [sic], from which the oil of
commerce is extracted.
The wild animals are the Deer, the grey fox, the opossum, which is caught in great
numbers & forms a food very like a pig. The Raccoon is also common & used for food.
The Great & Small Squirrel, . . . the Otter, the mink[,] the muskrat, the weasel & a few
Beaver remain. The birds are the Buzzard, the crow, the Wild Turkey in great numbers[,]
the bald Eagle, the Quail, the Woodcock, the meadow lark, the pigeon, & many smaller
birds. The rivers all in the spring of the year abound with the striped bass shad & herring,
& during the summer great quantities of Sturgeon with perch of various kind are caught &
serve as food for the inhabitants[.]
The Temperature of the climate is mild varying generally in the summer from 70°–85°
& the winter rarely below 25°. There are few days of winter too inclement for ploughing,
cattle & sheep are rarely housed, nor is it necessary except for a few weeks of midwinter[.]
This country is but very thinly populated, the wild spirit of adventure having carried a
large proportion of its former inhabitants, easily led away by the tales of Land Speculators
to the West where every thing was promised. Thus large bodies of land are left vacant &
untilled, so that the value is much diminished. The prices of the 1st low grounds are from
20–30$ p acre, of the 2d low grounds from 8–10$ & of the uplands from 2 to 6$ p acre.
[A]t these low rates uplands can be bought often including farm houses, stables, & other
buildings, within 3–5 miles of navigable waters or a less distance from Rail Road, and
with[in] 48 hours of New York, Phila[,] Baltimore and within a few hours of Norfolk[.]
The Harbour of Beaufort . . . lies about midway of the coast line of the State. . . . [I]t
is an estuary having two short stream’s [sic] running back, from one of which there was
formerly an attempt to connect this harbour with the Neuse River, but being laid out on
much too small a scale it failed & is no longer used.4 This harbour is the best for shelter &
5 8 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
*All the Foreign varieties of grape grow most luxuriantly, not excepting the white Malaga of
commerce[.]
more easy of access by ship’s [sic] of large draft of water than any from New York to
Pensacola with the single exception of Norfolk. There is at high tide not less than 24 feet
water, & about 18 at low water, over the bar, & the approach to passage over which, to a
secure roadsted, is in a right line. The Bay is about one & half miles wide & vessel’s [sic]
can run up the Lagoon’s [sic] either North or South for 6–8 miles with 12–15 feet water,
leaving behind them at the mouth of the harbour a newly built fortification of consider-able
strength.5 There is however a small village on the Harbour & ship stores are not in
large supply. In the year 1836 a ship of 800 tons was loaded in this Harbour for Liverpool
with a cargo of 1930 Bales of Cotton and 1200 Bbls of Turpentine, & drawing 18 feet
water was at sea in 45 minutes after weighing anchor.
[Jno. D. Hawkins,6 Raleigh, January 26, 1849]
In compliance with your request to point out some of the advantages to be derived to
the State of No. Carolina from the Rail Road act passed by the Genl. Assembly yester-day,
7 I proceed to say, this central Rail Road will lead from a point on the Wilmington
[and Raleigh] Rail Road8 near Goldsboro, to Raleigh, Salisbury and to Charlotte, a dis-tance
estimated at Two hundred and Twenty miles (220). It will pass through the counties
of Wayne, Johns[t]on, Wake, Chatham[,] Randolph, Davidson, Caboirus9 [sic], and
Mecklenburg. This is the richest agricultural region, apart from the low country, in the
State, and for want of an outlet has been more or less in a dormant condition. It will now
be revived into full action. Along the line of this Road, the mineral resources of the State
are abundant, beyond calculation; and notwithstanding the great many intelligent Citizens
of the State, who can tell you of the Geology, and Topography, of other States, the
intercummunications [sic], upon these subjects, in their own State, have never brought
them together, they have never investigated them at home and therefore but little is
known about them. Many of the first men in our state, had not found out that in
V O L U M E 5 8 , N U M B E R 2 , A P R I L 2 0 1 0 5 9
The harbor at Beaufort as depicted on an 1853 survey by Walter Gwynn of the right of way of the
Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad.
Chatham county, near to the seat of Government, there was an immense bed of Coal for-mation,
lying on both sides of Deep River, extending on both sides of the River, begining
[sic] Eight miles above Haywood, and extending for fifteen miles. How much farther, and
how wide from the River, investigations have not determined. It crops out in a great
monyplans [sic] so as to denote an enexhoustable [sic] quantity. The quality is so good, that
it does not contain one pound of [illegible] to the Bushel. Contains no Iron Piratus, and
Cokes equal to the best coal of New Castle, England. This has been tested by Mr. Silas
Burns10 of Raleigh, a gentleman of the best practical sense in the state upon these subjects.
This bed of Coal runs from No. East to So. West. Iron ore immediately alongside of this
coal is most abundant; yielding seventy percent, as tested by Mr. Burns, and he says, it is of
a soft maleable [sic] character, well suited for all purposes, denoting that part, from being
well suited for Hollow Ware, Pots Ovens &c. In the line of the Road there is also an
abundance of Lime for all uses & which will be needed in an Iron Foundary [sic]. There is
water power upon Deep River of the best sort which may also be found in all the country
bordering the Road, suited to all manufactoring [sic] purposes. From the cheapness of
[labor?], & provisions—the advantages of water power the great value and abundance of
the materials, and the facilities to be afforded by the Rail Road for transportation, and the
opening of the Rivers, that manufacturing can be carried on upon this road, and its vicin-ity,
as cheap, if not cheaper, than in any other Region in the United States. In the article
of Hollow Ware, supplied entirely from other states, it can be made here for $45 or $50
per ton, whereas the price abroad is [illegible] from $50 to $60 with freight and expenses to
be added on. This Road will pass over the Richest sections of the state, watered by the
Haw & Deep Rivers, Yadkin & Catawba, where Agriculture has long languished, for
want of an outlet to market, and by R. Road, now, every facility will be added which will
stimulate it into a production increased more than one hundred per cent. All the country
through which the Road will pass, is well suited to the culture of Tob[acc]o, wheat and
corn & cotton, articles too heavy, except cotton, to be sent to market heretofore to any
sort of advantage. In the county of Lincoln one hundred & Eighty miles from Petersburg
in Virginia Tob[acc]o was made, and Rolled the whole distance, about sixty years ago;
such was the desire for a market for an article suited to the growth of the country. In that
whole Region of country, in the counties around Charlotte, the terminus of the Rail
Road, the mineral resources are inexhaustable [sic], in Gold and Iron. . . . In this region,
Iron is made, now, in great quantities to supply the surrounding country & of a quality
superior to what is made, almost any where. And the quantity may be increased for any
demand. Here Rail Road Iron, can be made at the cheapest rate, for all Rail Road pur-poses.
These are some of the advantages of this great central state work. But when you
take into calculation the advantages derivable from its striking the Rivers above their falls,
and particularly the Yadkin above the Narrows, and the great addition they will make,
equal to the whole line of the Rail Road, thereby doubling its advantages, you will per-ceive
the advantages are only half deleniated [sic]. . . .
[S. F. Patterson,11 Raleigh, January 27, 1849]
Enclosed herewith you will find some additional account of the Gold Mines in my
District. . . .
[The statement below follows a general description of the landscape, natural resources,
and agricultural products of the Forty-eighth Senatorial District, comprised of Burke,
Caldwell, McDowell, and Wilkes counties:]
The Counties of Burke & McDowell also afford some of the finest Gold Mines of the
surface character, that are to be found in the State. Gold is also found in both the other
Counties of this District, but no mines in either of them have been worked to any great
extent. . . . The Gold in these mines is found in distinct particles of various sizes and of
every conceivable shape—the larger ones weighing frequently from three to five penny
weights and sometimes more. These generally have the appearance of having undergone
severe heat, amounting to fusion—and the great variety of shapes and forms which they
6 0 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
present has suggested the idea of having pins attached to them and of wearing them as
breast pins for ladies and gentlemen, for which purpose they are admirably adapted. In
some few instances large particles have been found with small portions of chrystallized [sic]
quartz imbedded so firmly in them, and so disposed as to present the appearance of a gold
ground richly set with diamonds. The particular kind of gold here described is found
intermixed generally with a layer or strata of pebbles or gravel underneath the surface and
varying from two to six feet in thickness and usually found in alluvial deposits in the low
or flat grounds along the streams—but not unfrequently [sic] valuable deposits are found to
exist on and near the surface of the ground on the hillsides adjacent—thus suggesting, if
not establishing the probability that the gold found in the alluvial deposits in the valleys
and low grounds at the base of the hills has been washed down from their sides and there
deposited. These surface mines are for the most part worked by slaves. The usual mode of
operating is to lay out in the low grounds a line of pits, say some eight or ten feet square.
The upper surface being removed until they come to the gravel or grit, as it is familiarly
termed by the miners, they throw this up into a large rocker, made somewhat like a small
[jelly?] boat, with [illegible] common shaped rockers underneath and cross bars on the
inside at convenient distances, which is kept constantly in motion by hand, rocking from
side to side, having all the time a constant stream of water running in at one end and out
at the other, while one hand throws in the grit and another keeps it well stirred until it is
washed perfectly clean, when it is thrown out. This operation is continued through the
day, and at night the rocker is stopped and cleaned, when the gold is found at the bottom,
lodged against the cross bars above mentioned[.] If the particles be very fine, which is gen-erally
the case[,] a quantity of quicksilver is put in to collect and unite them together in
one mass, which when done, it is taken out and the quicksilver burned off, leaving the
gold in a state of concretion. As soon as the whole layer or strata of grit is thrown out of
one pit, the exhaustion of which is generally indicated by striking a slate formation below,
another pit is commenced and the earth and grit of the second after being washed in the
rocker as before described is thrown into the first, and so continued throughout the whole
line. The Gold obtained is usually sent to the Mint at Charlotte and there coined. The
coinage at that place being indicated by having the letter C stamped upon the peices [sic].
It would be utterly impossible to tell with precision the amount of Gold extracted from
the mines in Burke & McDowell Counties, for although the regular Miners keep accurate
accounts of every days work, and can always tell what they have done & are doing, yet
V O L U M E 5 8 , N U M B E R 2 , A P R I L 2 0 1 0 6 1
A young woman keeps the log rockers in motion to sift the gold from the grit at Gold Hill, Rowan
County, ca. 1870.
there are a large number of persons who are only occasionally engaged in the business and
who keep no regular account of their operations. Besides the slaves engaged in the mines
are generally allowed a stated portion of time to work for themselves and the gold they
obtain in this way is not taken into account by any one. It is usually sold by the penny
weight to merchants and others, and to some extent it may be said to enter into the
general circulation of the Country.
[Richard Smith,12 Raleigh, n.d.]
I make the following reply to your enquiries respecting the Black Lead Mine, near the
City of Raleigh. . . . This great deposit of Black Lead lies a little West of Raleigh and is
crossed by all the roads that lead to Hillsborough & Chapel Hill. 3½ miles from Raleigh is
Crab Tree Creek which it crosses, and at a place called Guthrie’s Mine about 6 Miles from
Raleigh is the principal place where excavations have been made and about 1000 Barrels
have been obtain[e]d in its crude state. The whole formation consists of a number of
parall’d beds. They lie in a singular variety of isinglass rock (micacecous shistus) of a bright
cherry red[.] These Beds occur throughout a space of three fourths of a mile wide & ten
miles long[.] This Mine is not only of great comparative value and extent, But the ore
itself is of a superior quality, and believed to be inexaustable [sic]. The only Notice of this
mine which I have met with . . . in any foreign publication is contained in “Parkes”
Chemical Essays, printed at London in 1815[.]13
Professor Olmsted14 who made a Geological survey of this State in 1823 by appoint-ment
of the Legislature of the State says in his report. He never read of any mine of Plum-bago15
which can compare in extent with this, but have reason to believe it is the largest
mine on Record. It is mined and spread upon large Tables and carefully assorted[.] The
finest is No. 1 & second No. 2. The propri[e]tor is now erecting mills to grind it & has
obtained one to grind it dry & another to grind in Oil. These mills are from James
Bogardus of New York and are called Bogardus’ Excentric [sic] Patent Mills16 made for the
purpose of grinding this article and as soon as the mills are put into operation it is certain
the article can be furnished sufficient for all purposes wanting[.] It is [illegible] to Grind it in
Oil. I say Cotton seed oil is the best as it possesses the best body, particularly for all out
side painting of Roofs. It will be put up in Kegs of from 25 [pounds?] to 50, 100 to 500
[pound?] Kegs[.] The price for the best will be about 8 cents pr. [pound?] & a 2nd quality
c[.] 6 cents—and generally will range about the Price of White Lead.
It is called the Patent Metalic [sic] Carbon Paint and Manufactured from this Article
consisting of 5 parts of Carburit of Iron 10 of Silecious Minerals and 85 of Metalic [sic]
Carbon. It protects wooden Roofs from the effects of sparks or flakes of Fire—Metal roofs
from the action of water and rust more effectually than any other paint & there is none to
compare with it. And from its covering nearly twice the span is cheaper than any other
paint. It is very durable [and] will be good for 50 to 75 years.
Professor Richard Cowley Taylor,17 examined the mine on the 12th March 1845.
Taylor is one of the best Geologist[s] in the U. States. He says I found it very interesting
and hope this valuable & magnificent development of Plumbago, Black Lead, Graphite. It
is a substance which possessing incomparable properties has not yet received the attention
it deserves from practicable Men & has never been estimated as it deserves and to the
extent which I trust you will find it is destined.
But we will hazard one simple estimate on the moderate supposition, that an average
depth of fifteen yards of Mineral can be extracted by this process without recourse to
Shafts or Machinery the result estimating on the known specific gravity of pure Graphite
and assuming 8 Miles as length of the same there will be about 100,000 Tons of Workable
plumbago in every foot of breadth in the Vein. We need not descend to further depths
below. In all probability the stratum passes downwards far beyond the power of man to
fathom. It has never as yet been worked below water level. This Mine cost some upwards
of Twenty Thousand Dollars. Its estimated value is half a Million to One Million dollars.
6 2 C A R O L I N A C O M M E N T S
PS Two of the best Geologists in England & America, has analized [sic] this Plumbago, Graphite, or
Black Lead and their report says it is composed of 90 parts of Carbon & 10 of Iron, that is the finest
of it No. 1 & No. 2[,] 85 of Carbon & 15 of Iron.
Notes
1. Correspondence (1838–1864), Letters Arranged by Place of Origin, New York–North Carolina,
Microfilm Reel 4, Alexandre Vattemare Papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, New York
Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.
2. Henry King Burgwyn, a native of New York, was a farmer who lived in Jackson, Northampton
County. 1850 Census, Northampton County.
3. Dismal Swamp Canal.
4. Probably Clubfoot and Harlow’s Creek Canal, which the North Carolina Assembly first
authorized in 1766 and supported, to no end, as late as 1849. Alan D. Watson, A History of New Bern
and Craven County (New Bern: Tryon Palace Commission, 1987), 133–135, 272–274.
5. Fort Macon.
6. John Davis Hawkins (1781–1858), an attorney and farmer, represented Franklin County in the
North Carolina House of Commons and Senate at various times between 1821 and 1841. He was
very interested in the development of railroads in the state, particularly the Raleigh and Gaston
Railroad. Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, s.v. “Hawkins, John Davis.”
7. The subject of Hawkins’s letter is the North Carolina Railroad. Incorporated by the General
Assembly on January 27, 1849 (not January 25, as the letter implies), it was completed in 1856 and
had a tremendous impact on the development of the state’s Piedmont section. Laws of North
Carolina, 1848–1849, c. 82; Encyclopedia of North Carolina, s.v. “North Carolina Railroad.”
8. In 1855 the name of this line was changed to Wilmington and Weldon Railroad. Encyclopedia of
North Carolina, s.v. “Wilmington & Weldon Railroad.”
9. Cabarrus.
10. A blacksmith from Massachusetts, Burns moved to Raleigh in the 1830s. With partners, he
developed extensive metalworking shops and in 1854 received a contract to manufacture fifty freight
cars for the North Carolina Railroad. Elizabeth Reid Murray, Wake, Capital County of North
Carolina. Volume 1: Prehistory through Centennial (Raleigh: Capital County Publishing Company,
1983), 282–283.
11. Samuel Finley Patterson (1799–1874) owned a farm in the Yadkin Valley of Caldwell County.
He and other investors in 1848 developed a cotton factory in Patterson, a community named for
him. A strong advocate of internal improvements, he served as president of the Raleigh and Gaston
Railroad from 1840 until 1845. In 1848, as chairman of the Committee on Internal Improvements,
he wrote the bill that chartered the North Carolina Railroad Company. Dictionary of North Carolina
Biography, s.v. “Patterson, Samuel Finley.”
12. A businessman in Raleigh with real estate in 1850 valued at $75,000. During the 1840s, Smith
and a partner bought six thousand acres of land west of Raleigh containing the plumbago or black
lead deposits described in this letter. Smith died in 1852. Mining operations continued until about
1857. 1850 Census, Wake County; Murray, Wake, Capital County, 284.
13. Samuel Parkes, Chemical Essays Principally Relating to the Arts and Manufactures of the British
Dominions (London: Printed for the author and published by Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, 1815).
14. The North Carolina Geological Survey was begun in 1822 under the direction of Denison
Olmsted (1791–1859), a professor at the University of North Carolina. Encyclopedia of North Carolina,
s.v. “Geological Survey.” Olmsted’s Report on the Geology of North-Carolina (1824–1825) was
published in two parts by the North Carolina Board of Agriculture. This report is cited in an article
(“Plumbago”) about the Wake County deposits in the Raleigh Register, and North-Carolina Gazette,
September 4, 1837.
15. Graphite.
16. See James Bogardus, Description of James Bogardus’ Patent Eccentric Universal Mill with Directions for
Use . . . (New York: n.p., 1855), copy in the Smithsonian Institution Libraries.
17. Richard Cowling Taylor (1789–1851) was the author of Statistics of Coal: the Geographical and
Geological Distribution of Mineral Combustables or Fossil Fuel, Including, Also, Notices and Localities of the
Various Mineral Bituminous Substances Employed in Arts and Manufactures . . . (Philadelphia: J. W.
Moore, 1848).
V O L U M E 5 8 , N U M B E R 2 , A P R I L 2 0 1 0 6 3
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Carolina Comments Jeffrey J. Crow, Editor in Chief
(ISSN 0576-808X) Kenrick N. Simpson, Editor